July 18, 2010

New Discovery on Vitamin B3

Vitaminb3 Recent research has shown that B3 could possibly be used as an antifungal treatment.  The research was carried out by the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the University of Montreal, led by Martine Raymond, Pierre Thibault, and Alain Verreault (in conjunction with Alaka Mullick from the Biotechnology Research Institute of the National Research Council Canada.  This study was reported in Nature Medicine.  “Researchers found that genetic or pharmacological inhibition of Hst3 with nicotinamide, a form of vitamin B3, strongly reduced C. albicans virulence in a mouse model. Both normal and drug-resistant strains of C. albicans were susceptible to nicotinamide. In addition, nicotinamide prevented the growth of other pathogenic Candida species and Aspergillus fumigatus (another human pathogen), thus demonstrating the broad antifungal properties of nicotinamide.”  Thus if new therapies were developed to kill C. albicans this would help since it is one of the main causes of infections patients pick up in hospitals and is linked to high mortality rates.

Jul 18, 2010 4:34:54 AM | health tips, Josyann Abisaab

NEXT POST
University of Rochester Medical Center Research As well as being a top institution at which to study medicine, the University of Rochester Medical Center has also been making significant strides in its research progress. But this is not just theory; the research undertaken has been perhaps most importantly – affecting “lives of patients around the globe.” The institute has a strong financial backing for this, of $232 million (which is growing) and has impacted “nearly every area of medicine imaginable.” Most notably the university has been involved in developing three vaccines that are popular around the world, protecting people from ear infections, cervical cancer, meningitis and...
PREVIOUS POST
Vitamin D for Optimum Health Vitamin D is crucial for overall good health. What has now been discovered is that one can determine their body’s Vitamin D resources via their skin tone, nutrition and amount of sunshine absorbed. It was Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Charles B. Stephensen, along with his colleagues from the University of California-Davis, who conducted this research through their “development of a preliminary model that predicts an individual's vitamin D requirements.” It is not new that sun is a major source of Vitamin D. But new research shows that this is dependent on one’s particular skin type, as well as latitude and...

Josyann Abisaab

Assistant Attending Physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital

The TypePad Team

Search