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Berne: Scientists have
identified a natural milk compound that keeps obesity at bay in
mice even as they continue to enjoy high-fat diets.
"This is present in what we've all been eating since day one,"
says study co-author Johan Auwerx of Ecole Polytechnique Federale
de Lausanne, Switzerland.
Researchers identified this ingredient, known as nicotinamide
riboside, as they were searching for alternative ways to boost the
well-known gene SIRT1, which comes with benefits for both
metabolism and longevity.
One way to do that is to target SIRT1 directly, as the red wine
ingredient resveratrol appears to do, at least at some doses, the
journal Cell Metabolism reports.
Auwerx's team suspected there might be a simpler way to go about
it, by boosting levels of one of SIRT1's molecular sidekicks, the
cofactor NAD+.
This milk ingredient does just that in a rather appealing way. Not
only is it a natural product, but it also gets trapped within
cells, where it can do its magic, according to an Ecole
Polytechnique statement.
Mice that take nicotinamide riboside in fairly high doses along
with their high-fat meals burn more fat and are protected from
obesity. They also become better runners thanks to muscles that
have greater endurance.
The benefits they observe in mice wouldn't be easy to get from
drinking milk alone, Auwerx says. It may be more likely that the
compound would serve as a new kind of metabolism-boosting
supplement. Tests done in people are now needed to help sort out
those details.
On the other hand, he says, this milk substance ultimately offers
the same benefits attributed to resveratrol, but in a different
way. It's possible that many small effects of ingredients found in
our diets could add up to slimmer waistlines - perhaps longer
lives, too.
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