Popular Vitamin Supplement May Cause Cancer and Brain Metastasis

University of Missouri researchers made the discovery using bioluminescent imaging technology to study how nicotinamide riboside supplements work inside the body, reports Scitech Daily.

In previous studies, commercial dietary supplements such as nicotinamide riboside (NR), a form of vitamin B3, have been associated with benefits. Mainly related to cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological health. However, a new study by the University of Missouri (MU) has shown that NR may actually increase the risk of serious diseases, including cancer.

Scientists have found that high levels of NR can not only increase the risk of developing triple negative breast cancer.

But it can also cause the cancer to metastasize or spread to the brain. The international team of researchers was led by Elena Gun, an associate professor of chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of the study. She said that once the cancer reaches the brain, the results are deadly. Unfortunately, there are currently no viable treatment options.

“Some people take them [vitamins and supplements] because they think that vitamins and supplements only have positive health benefits. But very little is known about how they actually work,” Gong said. “Because of this lack of knowledge, we decided to look into the fundamentals of how vitamins and nutritional supplements work in the body.”

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After the death of her 59-year-old father just three months after being diagnosed with colon cancer, Gong was touched by her father's passing. She set out to pursue a better scientific understanding of cancer metabolism, the energy by which cancer spreads throughout the body. NR is a well-known supplement to help boost cellular energy levels. And cancer cells feed on this energy through their increased metabolism, Gong wanted to investigate the role of NR in the development and spread of cancer.

“Our work is particularly important given the wide commercial availability and large number of ongoing human clinical trials in which NR is being used to mitigate the side effects of cancer therapy in patients,” Gong said.

The researchers used this technology to compare and study how much NR levels were present in cancer cells, T cells, and healthy tissues.

“While NR is already widely used in humans, much of how NR works is a black box. It's not clear,” said Gong. “This inspired us to develop a new imaging technique based on ultra-sensitive bioluminescent imaging. It allows real-time quantification of NR levels in a non-invasive way. The presence of NR is indicated by light, and the brighter the light, the more NR is present.”

Gong said the results of the study highlight the importance of carefully researching the potential side effects of supplements like NR before using them in people who may have different types of medical conditions. In the future, Gong wants to provide information that could potentially lead to the development of certain inhibitors to help make cancer treatments such as chemotherapy more effective in treating cancer. The key to this approach is to look at it from the perspective of personalized medicine.

“Not all cancers are the same in every person, especially in terms of metabolic characteristics,” says Gong. “Often, cancerous tumors can even change their metabolism before or after chemotherapy.”