Also known as nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (oxidized) · Wikipedia
NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, oxidized form) is a pyridine dinucleotide cofactor — not a peptide — that is central to cellular bioenergetics, redox balance, and signaling. It exists in oxidized (NAD+) and reduced (NADH) forms and serves as an electron acceptor in glycolysis, the TCA cycle, and fatty-acid oxidation. NAD+ is also a consumed substrate for sirtuins (SIRT1–7), PARPs, and the ectoenzyme CD38, linking cellular NAD+ pools to DNA repair, deacetylation-based gene regulation, and mitochondrial biogenesis. Tissue NAD+ declines with age in humans and rodents, motivating supplementation strategies using oral precursors (nicotinamide riboside, NR; nicotinamide mononucleotide, NMN) or, less commonly, parenteral NAD+ itself. Oral NR and NMN have well-characterized human safety and pharmacokinetic data; intravenous NAD+ is used off-label in addiction-medicine and longevity clinics with limited but growing clinical literature.
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Browse all vendorsMechanism of action
NAD+ is the universal hydride acceptor that drives mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation: glycolysis, the TCA cycle, and fatty-acid β-oxidation reduce NAD+ to NADH, which donates electrons at Complex I of the electron-transport chain. Beyond redox, NAD+ is a consumed substrate (not a coenzyme) for three families of NAD+-dependent enzymes — sirtuins (SIRT1–7, lysine deacylases regulating PGC-1α, p53, FOXO, and histone tails), PARPs (DNA-damage-induced poly-ADP-ribose polymerases), and CD38 (an ectoenzyme that hydrolyzes NAD+) — making cellular NAD+ pools rate-limiting for genome maintenance, transcriptional regulation of mitochondrial biogenesis, and circadian metabolism (reviewed in Connell et al.
Pharmacokinetic properties
Half-life
Plasma NAD+ has a short circulating half-life (<10 min for intact dinucleotide); oral precursors NR and NMN produce sustained tissue NAD+ rises over hours.
Routes
intravenous · subcutaneous · intramuscular · intranasal · oral
Bioavailability
Direct NAD+ has very poor oral bioavailability — it is degraded in the gut and largely converted to nicotinamide. IV NAD+ infusion is the most studied parenteral route. Oral precursors (NR, NMN) are practical and raise tissue NAD+ at well-characterized doses. SC/IM injection of NAD+ is common in self-experimentation but causes substantial injection-site pain and flushing.
Amino-acid sequence
(Not a peptide — pyridine dinucleotide cofactor; C21H27N7O14P2)
Use & research dosing
NAD+ is not a regulated drug for longevity indications and has no FDA-approved dose. Oral precursor regimens with the strongest human evidence: nicotinamide riboside (NR) 250–1,000 mg/day for 6–12 weeks (Martens et al., 2018) and nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) 300–900 mg/day, with 600 mg/day producing the largest functional gains in a multicenter RCT (Yi et al., 2023). IV NAD+ infusion protocols commonly reported in clinics: 250–1,000 mg infused slowly over 2–6 hours, often repeated daily for 5–10 days followed by maintenance (Grant et al., 2019). SC self-administration commonly reported at 50–100 mg/day. All non-supplement parenteral protocols are off-label and lack regulator-validated dose-finding work.
Research-use framing only. SavePeptides sells nothing for human consumption. Doses above reflect reported research / self-experimentation ranges, not clinical recommendations.
NAD+ is a dinucleotide cofactor, not a peptide. It is included in this knowledge base because it is sold by peptide vendors alongside (and is commonly stacked with) mitochondrial-derived peptides such as MOTS-c, humanin, and SS-31. The strongest human evidence supports oral NR and NMN precursors, with multiple randomized controlled trials demonstrating dose-dependent blood NAD+ elevation and acceptable tolerability. IV NAD+ remains the largest gap between clinical practice and formal evidence: small pilot studies (Grant 2019; addiction-medicine pilots) confirm pharmacokinetic plausibility, but properly powered RCTs of clinical endpoints in IV NAD+ are still rare. 'Resveratrol' and 'methylene blue' co-mentions could not be mapped to index slugs and were dropped.
— SavePeptides editorial desk · last updated 2026-05-25
Cautions & contraindications
Research foundation
Facts verified
2026-05-25
Confidence
high
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