Home / Research library / NAD+
Compound guide
NAD+: what the research covers
Not a peptide but a redox cofactor, central to sirtuin and PARP activity and to the mitochondrial hypothesis of ageing. Why it behaves unlike anything else in the catalogue.
What NAD+ is
Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide is a dinucleotide cofactor present in every living cell, not a peptide and not a signalling molecule in the way the rest of this catalogue is. It cycles between an oxidised form, NAD+, and a reduced form, NADH, and in doing so carries electrons through the reactions of central metabolism.
Its research interest rests on a second role. NAD+ is consumed, not merely cycled, by three enzyme families: the sirtuins, which deacetylate histones and metabolic regulators; the PARPs, which act in DNA damage response; and CD38. Because these enzymes use the molecule up rather than regenerating it, cellular NAD+ availability becomes a constraint on their activity, and the decline in NAD+ concentration observed with age is the observation the whole field is built on.
What the literature examines
The largest strand concerns sirtuin-dependent signalling: mitochondrial biogenesis, metabolic regulation and the downstream transcriptional consequences of altered deacetylase activity. A second concerns DNA repair through PARP activity, and the competition between PARPs and sirtuins for a shared and limited pool. A third addresses the practical question of raising intracellular concentration, which is where most of the methodological difficulty sits.
That difficulty is worth stating plainly. NAD+ itself does not cross the plasma membrane efficiently, which is why much of the published work uses precursors — nicotinamide riboside, nicotinamide mononucleotide — rather than the cofactor directly. Studies applying NAD+ to a cell system and studies applying a precursor are not testing the same thing, and the distinction is frequently blurred in secondary sources. Published work is indexed on PubMed.
How Amino Club supplies it
NAD+ is supplied lyophilised in sealed vials as NAD+ and as a metered intranasal preparation, NAD+ nasal spray. Each batch is released against the Certificate of Analysis carrying the batch number on the label, by the process documented on the lab testing page.
Handling is the part that catches people out. NAD+ is hygroscopic, and in aqueous solution it degrades considerably faster than the peptide sequences stored alongside it — hydrolysis to nicotinamide and ADP-ribose proceeds at a rate that depends sharply on pH and temperature. A working solution left overnight is not the concentration it was prepared at. Solutions are therefore made fresh, and the notes on the product page matter more here than for most of the catalogue. Solvents are under reconstitution supplies.
Related reading
NAD+ sits in the longevity group alongside Epithalon, MOTS-C, SS-31 and FOXO4-DRI. MOTS-C and SS-31 are the two most closely related in mechanism, since both concern mitochondrial function from different angles.
Every guide is indexed in the research library. Certificate, storage and shipping questions are on the FAQ; institutional quantities through bulk and wholesale.
Research use only
NAD+ supplied by Amino Club is a laboratory reference material. It is not a medicine, not a supplement, and not for human or veterinary use, and no dosing guidance or administration protocol is provided. The full terms are in the research use policy.