*MS Article* Vit B3

[Guest guest]

Hi

I only know what is posted below. Adam:

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Vitamin B3 Form Slows Multiple Sclerosis In Mice

Nicotinamide (aka niacinamide as distinct from niacin) is the form of

vitamin B3 that does not cause flushing in your skin. Nicotinamide

injected into mice provided protection to nerve cells from a mouse

disease that is very similar to multiple sclerosis.

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A team led by Shinjiro Kaneko, MD, a research fellow at Children's, and

senior investigator Zhigang He, PhD, also from Children's, worked with

mice that had an MS-like disease called experimental autoimmune

encephalitis (EAE). Through careful experiments, they showed that

nicotinamide protected the animals' axons from degeneration - not only

preventing axon inflammation and myelin loss, but also protecting axons

that had already lost their myelin from further degradation.

Intriguingly, mice with EAE who received daily nicotinamide injections

under their skin had a delayed onset of neurologic disability, and the

severity of their deficits was reduced for at least eight weeks after

treatment. The greater the dose of nicotinamide, the greater the

protective effect.

This is great news because nicotinamide has very low toxicity, is cheap,

and is easy to administer. Just taking large doses in pills might be

enough to greatly slow the progress of MS.

The highest nicotinamide doses provided the biggest benefit.

On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 indicating mild weakness only in the tail, 4

indicating paralysis involving all four limbs, and 5, death from the

disease), mice receiving the highest doses of nicotinamide had

neurologic scores between 1 and 2, while control mice had scores between

3 and 4. All differences between treated groups and controls were

statistically significant.

Mice with the greatest neurologic deficits had the lowest levels of NAD

in their spinal cord, and those with the mildest deficits had the

highest NAD levels. Mice that had higher levels of an enzyme that

converts nicotinamide to NAD (known as Wlds mice) responded best to

treatment.

Moreover, nicotinamide significantly reduced neurologic deficits even

when treatment was delayed until 10 days after the induction of EAE,

raising hope that it will also be effective in the later stages of MS.

'The earlier therapy was started, the better the effect, but we hope

nicotinamide can help patients who are already in the chronic stage,'

says Kaneko.

In other experiments, the researchers demonstrated that nicotinamide

works by increasing levels of NAD in the spinal cord and that NAD levels

decrease when axons degenerate. Finally, they showed that giving NAD

directly also prevented axon degeneration.

NAD is used extensively by cells to produce energy through the breakdown

of carbohydrates.

Perhaps nicotinamide works by boosting energy output so that damaged

nerve cells can repair themselves faster and thereby avoid too much

accumulated damage.

As much as I like high technology I even more like low tech solutions

that can be put into practice immediately.

If you are wondering about dosing: The doses were 125 mg per kg and 500

mg per kg. A kilogram is 2.2 pounds. I have no idea whether the human

doses would need to scale by those ratios.