Longevity & bioregulatorsCoenzyme (non-peptide)Evidence B3 cited

NAD+

Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide

aka NAD+ injection · nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide · NAD IV

A coenzyme central to cellular energy and DNA repair that declines markedly with age.

Molecular wt

663.4g/mol

Formula

C21H27N7O14P2

CAS

53-84-9

Half-life

45 min

clinical

Tmax

6 min

PubChem

5892

Sequence

Read this before quoting the sequence

NOT A PEPTIDE. NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, oxidised form; also called nadide, coenzyme I, diphosphopyridine nucleotide) is a dinucleotide coenzyme composed of nicotinamide riboside and adenosine joined through two phosphate groups. It has no amino acid sequence.

Source ↗

Mechanism of action

NAD+ acts as a coenzyme in redox reactions, transferring electrons from one reaction to another, which is crucial for ATP production in the mitochondria. It also plays a role in DNA repair by activating sirtuins, a family of proteins involved in cellular stress responses. Additionally, NAD+ is involved in the regulation of circadian rhythms and metabolic pathways.

What the evidence actually shows

Grade B

There are several human trials examining NAD+ precursors like nicotinamide riboside and nicotinamide mononucleotide, showing improvements in metabolic health and markers of aging. However, direct evidence on NAD+ itself is limited, and long-term effects are not well-studied.

Regulatory status

Status

Not approved as a medicinal product for infusion by the FDA, EMA or MHRA. NAD+ and its precursors are sold as supplements or compounded IV preparations, not as licensed medicines.

Clinical stage

Human data limited to small pilot pharmacokinetic work (PMID 31572171) plus larger trials of precursors (nicotinamide riboside, nicotinamide mononucleotide) rather than NAD+ itself.

research_compound

In the UK, NAD+ and its precursors are considered research compounds and are not licensed as medicinal products.

Source ↗

Pharmacokinetics

Half-life

45 min

Tmax

6 min

Absorption

Elimination

hepatic

Washout

1 days

Low-confidence pharmacokinetics

These figures are recorded as clinical rather than measured in a published PK study. Treat them as an order of magnitude. Anything downstream of them — accumulation, steady state, washout — inherits that uncertainty.

Dosing — what backs each figure

There is no approved indication or labelled dose for intravenous NAD+. The single published human pharmacokinetic study infused 750 mg over 6 hours in 8 healthy men and found NAD+ was cleared from plasma for the first two hours with no rise in NAD+ or its metabolites until later - and the authors state plainly that they chose that dose because it was what clinics were already using. Oral precursors (nicotinamide riboside, NMN) are a separate evidence base and should not be conflated with IV NAD+ figures.

ClinicalApproved labelling or a published human trial

750 mg NAD+ in normal saline infused intravenously over 6 hours (approximately 2 mg/min, equal to 3 umol/min), single infusion; the authors state this dose 'was derived empirically and reflects a common dosing regimen' in clinics
8 healthy men (plus 3 controls), open-label pilot pharmacokinetic study · intravenous infusion
Grant R et al. A pilot study investigating changes in the human plasma and urine NAD+ metabolome during a 6 hour intravenous infusion of NAD+. Front Aging Neurosci 2019;11:257 ↗

Commonly circulatedNot established by any study

Dose: Clinical IV infusion ~250 to 1000 mg (slow)
Frequency: 1-3x weekly

Why this isn't evidence
Only one point in that range (750 mg over 6 hours, n=8) has ever been formally studied, and that paper explicitly says the dose was copied from existing clinic practice rather than derived from evidence; the 250-1000 mg band and the 1-3x weekly frequency come from IV-drip clinic marketing, not from any trial.

This figure is shown because it is what circulates and what people search for — not because it is supported. Cycle lengths in particular tend to be convention copied between compounds rather than anything derived from a compound's own pharmacokinetics.

No established human dose

No approved label or completed human trial establishes a dosing regimen for this compound. Anything presented as a standard protocol for it — anywhere — is someone's convention rather than a finding.

Handling and storage

No compound-specific stability data exists

No regulatory label or peer-reviewed stability study specific to pharmaceutical NAD+ preparations was located. NAD+ is a laboratory reagent as well as an infusion ingredient and reagent-supplier storage advice is not an acceptable source for this dataset. Peptide-style lyophilised/reconstituted stability fields are in any case a poor fit for a coenzyme. General peptide handling still applies — reconstitute gently, keep it cold, keep it dark — but any specific figure you see quoted for this compound elsewhere is someone's assumption, not a measurement.

→ Reconstitution walkthrough → Reconstitution calculator

Safety

Commonly reported

·Nausea
·Fatigue

Rarely reported

·Allergic reactions

Contraindications

·Pregnancy
·Breastfeeding

Drug interactions

·Antidiabetic drugs: May enhance insulin sensitivity, requiring dose adjustments

Infusion-rate reactions: flushing, nausea, chest tightness if too fast

Reported combinations

Reported as synergistic

·Resveratrol
·Pterostilbene

Reported as antagonistic

·Alcohol: May deplete NAD+ levels

Combination claims in this dataset are largely unsourced and should be treated as folk knowledge until a citation appears beside them.

References (3)

Grant R, Berg J, Mestayer R, Braidy N, Bennett J, Broom S, Watson J. (2019) A Pilot Study Investigating Changes in the Human Plasma and Urine NAD+ Metabolome During a 6 Hour Intravenous Infusion of NAD+ ↗
Front Aging NeurosciPMID 31572171DOI
The only identified human study of directly infused NAD+. Participants received a 6-hour intravenous NAD+ infusion at 3 micromol/min; the paper documents plasma and urinary NAD+ and metabolite changes during and after infusion. Pilot study, very small.
Verdin E. (2015) NAD+ in aging, metabolism, and neurodegeneration ↗
SciencePMID 26785480DOI
Review of NAD+ biology: its role as a redox coenzyme and as a cosubstrate for sirtuins and PARPs, the decline of cellular NAD+ with age, and the rationale for precursor supplementation.
Canto C, Houtkooper RH, Pirinen E, Youn DY, Oosterveer MH, Cen Y, et al. (2012) The NAD(+) precursor nicotinamide riboside enhances oxidative metabolism and protects against high-fat diet-induced obesity ↗
Cell MetabPMID 22682224DOI
Mouse and cell study: dietary nicotinamide riboside raised NAD+, activated SIRT1/SIRT3 and protected against diet-induced obesity. Concerns the precursor NR, not NAD+ itself.

Data provenance

Chemistry and citations on this page were checked against primary sources on 2026-08-14. Values that could not be verified were left blank rather than filled with a plausible guess.

Could not verify
storage.lyophilized, storage.reconstituted, storage.lightSensitive, reconstitution.solvent, regulatory.wada

Research use only

This profile is educational reference material. It is not medical advice, not a prescription, and not an endorsement of self-administration. Compounds discussed here are research chemicals and most are not approved for human therapeutic use.

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