This post pertains to work published February 17, 2017 in the journal Science titled "Vitamin B 3 modulates mitochondrial vulnerability and prevents glaucoma in aged mice." This article is behind a paywall (and is not open access so I can not reproduce figures) so I will do my best to describe the articles findings, and the authors conclusions.

Glaucoma

Glaucoma is not a singular disease, but rather a class of diseases which all follow a similar path. These diseases result in the slow death of ganglion cells (these cells are located in the nerve cluster of the eye called the optic nerve) in the retina of our eyes.

The retina is the portion of the eye which creates the electrical impulses in response to the focus light coming through the eye lense, after creating these impulses the retina sends them onward to the brain through the optic nerve.

The eye is filled with a fluid, that normally drains through a specialized network of cells called the drainage angle.

In glaucoma sufferers, the drainage angle becomes blocked resulting in increased pressure in the eye. This increased pressure puts a strain on the ganglion cells of the optic nerve and eventually results in their death.

What Were The Authors Looking At?

Mitochondrial proteins. Interestingly the authors observed that (at least in a mouse model) proteins in the cellular organelle called the mitochondria (it's where cellular metabolism happens) change drastically at early stages of glaucoma development.

They found that the protein changes in the mitochondria were among the very first detectable changes in the retinal ganglial cells (the ones that die from glaucoma), and that these changes resulted in decreasing amounts of several compounds responsible for protecting the cells against oxidative damage, including one called "nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide" or NAD.

The Researchers Used VitaminB 3

VitaminB 3 or Niacin, is a pre cursor to the formation of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide and the authors hypothesized that supplementing the drinking water of mice during the beginning stages of glaucoma development could help raise their NAD levels and protect them against the neural degeneration (and subsequent loss of eye sight).

This Is EXACTLY What They Saw

Including the vitamin in the drinking water maintained the mitochondrial NAD levels for up to 12 months (the duration of the study) but did not effect the intracellular pressure in the eyes ( the root cause of glaucoma ). This result is confirmation that the nerve cell death is due to a lack of NAD, which results from the increased intracellular pressure (and perhaps a lack of effective nutrient supply). Supplementing with Vitamin B 3 restored the levels of NAD and prevented the loss of vision.

TL;DR?

The authors supplemented mice who were in the early stages of glaucoma development with Vitamin B 3 (by just adding it to their drinking water). This supplementation restored an imbalance of NAD in the mitochondrion of the nerve cells in the mice's eyes and protected them against vision loss.

This is a very exciting result and is indicative that Vitamin B 3 supplementation should be considered for those suffering with glaucoma.

Of course perhaps in addition to your more standard choice of glaucoma medication:

Very interesting and exciting result for glaucoma sufferers. Any simple treatment that could prevent vision loss is a wonderful thing!

Sources

All Non Cited Images Are From Pixabay.com And Are Available Under Creative Commons Licenses

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