Vitamin B3 which counteracts physical deterioration
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Vitamin B3 counteracts the physical wasting associated with cancer. This is what emerged from a study coordinated by the research group of the Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences of the University of Turin which demonstrated how niacin, a form of vitamin B3, contrasts muscle atrophy and alterations of energy metabolism in patients oncological, improving the state of mitochondria.
Niacin
The study, coordinated by Professor Fabio Penna, was recently published in the journal “Nature Communications” and was able to demonstrate the efficacy of niacin in counteracting a multifactorial syndrome characterized by the progressive loss of muscle mass, with or without loss of fat mass, of an oncological patient, known as neoplastic cacchexia. In essence, it is a syndrome characterized by inflammation and metabolic stress – due to cancer growth and anticancer treatments that sometimes generate harmful adaptations in patients – which can compromise tissue functionality and reduce tolerance to chemotherapy.
It is a very important discovery because in oncology practice, all attention is focused on cancer-targeted therapies, neglecting the general state of the patient and missing the opportunity to treat cancer and associated syndromes as a single disease. In current research, aimed at considering the cancer-patient system as a whole, energy metabolism has been considered to find new anti-cachexia treatment options.
Preclinical research models
The identification of the specific target was conducted by studying preclinical research models (tumor-carrying mice) on which the efficacy of niacin (vitamin B3) was tested in improving the state of the mitochondria, counteracting muscle atrophy and alterations of energy metabolism. Considering that niacin is inexpensive and has been used safely for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia in humans, it could be used for the management of cancer patients with impaired energy metabolism, limiting the lack of response to anti-tumor therapies thereby increasing disease survival rates and the quality of life of cancer patients.
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