Nicotinamide reduces photodynamic therapy-induced immunosuppression in humans.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at NAD+.

To determine the effects of topical and oral nicotinamide on PDT-induced immunosuppression in humans.

Delayed-type hypersensitivity (Mantoux) reactions were assessed at treatment and control sites to determine immunosuppression.

Why It Was Studied

The immune suppressive effects of topical photodynamic therapy (PDT) are potential contributors to treatment failure after PDT for nonmelanoma skin cancer.

Who Took Part

The study group was 30 volunteers.

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover.

Because people in this NAD+ study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the volunteers nor the staff measuring them knew who was on NAD+, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Some volunteers received a placebo instead of NAD+, giving a reference point.

In the crossover set-up each of the volunteers took both NAD+ and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

In each study, methylaminolaevulinate cream was applied to discrete areas on the back, followed by narrowband red light irradiation (37 J cm(-2) ) delivered at high (75 mW cm(-2) ) or low (15 mW cm(-2) ) irradiance rates.

Adjacent, nonirradiated sites served as controls.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Administration, Cutaneous, Immune System Diseases, Immune Tolerance, Niacinamide, Photochemotherapy, Seasons and Tablets.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of NAD+ in 30 volunteers.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 3 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2012 (The British journal of dermatology), a journal based in England.

More context: the NAD+ compound page, all human trials.