The Plasma NAD(+) Metabolome Is Dysregulated in "Normal" Aging

Clement J, Wong M, Poljak A, Sachdev P, Braidy N · Rejuvenation Research

Plasma NAD+ fell with age across 20-87 years, the steepest decline in the panel (r-squared 0.86, p=4.4e-13), and NADP+ fell with it (p=0.001), while nicotinamide, N-methyl-nicotinamide, ADP-ribose and NADPH all rose (p<0.05 each). Nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide only trended downward (p=0.054). Plasma NADH, NMN, nicotinic acid mononucleotide and nicotinic acid did not change with age.

Population

Healthy human volunteers aged 20-87 years

Intervention

None — LC-MS/MS quantification of the plasma NAD+ metabolome across age

Comparator

Age groups

Limitations

Twenty-nine subjects in three age bands, cross-sectional, a largely Caucasian United States cohort; plasma is an extracellular compartment and need not track intracellular tissue NAD+, which is where the biology happens. The paper's abstract and its results section disagree on two metabolites: the abstract lists nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide among the significant declines and NADH among the age-related rises, and the results section reports the first as a trend at p=0.054 and the second as unchanged. The first author is affiliated with a longevity company; the paper declares no competing financial interests and names no funder.