Health
Study: Dietary Supplement Causes Cancer Risk & Brain Metastasis
(CTN NEWS) – The dietary supplement nicotinamide riboside, sold to enhance cardiovascular and neurological health, may raise the risk of developing breast cancer that spreads to the brain.
While earlier research connected commercial dietary supplements like nicotinamide riboside (NR), a form of vitamin B3, to cardiovascular, metabolic, and neurological health advantages.
New research from the University of Missouri has discovered NR may increase the risk of serious illness, including developing cancer.
According to a group of international researchers led by Elena Goun, an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Missouri.
“High levels of NR have been linked to an increased risk of developing triple-negative breast cancer and the ability of cancer to metastasize or spread to the brain.”
The study’s corresponding author said. once cancer spreads to the brain, the outcomes are fatal because there are currently no effective therapeutic alternatives.
“Since some people immediately believe that vitamins and dietary supplements can only be good for your health, some individuals take them, but very little is known about how they truly operate,” Goun said.
“Due to this ignorance, we were motivated to research the fundamental issues underlying how vitamins and dietary supplements function in the body.”
Goun’s 59-year-old father passed away three months after receiving a colon cancer diagnosis,
Which inspired her to work toward a better scientific knowledge of cancer metabolism—the mechanism cancer spreads throughout the body.
Gun was interested in finding out how NR affected the growth and spread of cancer because it is a supplement known to help boost cellular energy levels, and cancer cells use this energy to fuel their accelerated metabolism.
“Our work is especially noteworthy given the extensive commercial availability and the numerous human clinical trials currently being conducted where NR is utilized to reduce the negative effects of cancer therapy in patients,” Goun added.
The amount of NR levels in cancer cells, T cells, and healthy tissues were compared and examined by the researchers using this technology.
“Even though NR is now widely utilized in humans and is being researched in many ongoing clinical trials for potential uses, much of how NR functions are still unknown,” Goun said.
“This inspired us to develop this novel imaging technique based on ultrasensitive bioluminescence imaging that allows quantification of NR levels in real-time without invasive procedures.
Light indicates the presence of NR, and the brighter the light, the more NR there is.”
According to Gun, the study’s findings highlight the need for thorough examinations of the potential adverse effects of dietary supplements like NR before their use in individuals with various health concerns.
Goun hopes to one day contribute knowledge that might help create specific inhibitors to help chemotherapy and other cancer medicines work better against the disease.
According to Gun, the secret to this strategy is to view it from the perspective of individualized medicine.
According to metabolic markers, “not all tumours are the same in every person,” according to Goun. “Cancer usually shifts their metabolism before or after chemotherapy.”
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