What is the half-life of NAD+?
Cellular NAD+ turnover is dynamic and tissue-dependent — intracellular NAD+ has a turnover half-life on the order of hours, not days. The cellular pool is continuously consumed by sirtuin, PARP, and CD38 enzymes and regenerated through salvage from nicotinamide via the NAD+ biosynthesis pathway.
What the research literature says
NAD+ is not a peptide and doesn’t have a single “plasma half-life” in the way peptide therapeutics do — the cellular pool of NAD+ is in continuous turnover with synthesis (from nicotinamide via the salvage pathway, plus de-novo from tryptophan) balanced against consumption by NAD+-dependent signalling enzymes. The intracellular pool turns over on a timescale of hours; the relevant question is steady-state pool size and metabolic flux rather than half-life in the conventional drug-pharmacokinetic sense.
NAD+ precursor research (nicotinamide riboside, nicotinamide mononucleotide) has produced more relevant pharmacokinetic data because the precursors are membrane-permeable small molecules that can be tracked through tissue uptake and conversion to NAD+. The Cantó NR characterisation work (PMID 22682224) and the Yoshino review on NAD+ intermediates (PMID 29249689) consolidate the precursor-uptake-and-conversion framework.
Direct administered NAD+ in research contexts typically uses intravenous infusion to achieve plasma concentrations capable of supporting tissue uptake — oral and subcutaneous routes have limited bioavailability for the intact dinucleotide. Research-supply NAD+ is typically used in metabolic-research contexts where the direct cofactor is required for in-vitro enzyme assays or specific cell-culture supplementation protocols rather than for systemic dosing.
Why this matters in research context
The half-life framing doesn’t map cleanly to NAD+ research because the compound is a coenzyme rather than a receptor-targeted drug. Researchers studying NAD+ pharmacology should anchor protocol design to steady-state pool size and metabolic flux rather than to single-dose pharmacokinetic profiles. NAD+ precursor research (NR, NMN) is the more typical entry point for studies anchored to pharmacokinetic frameworks.
Related compounds
- NAD+ 500mg — the compound covered by this answer
- 5-Amino-1MQ 10mg — NNMT inhibitor affecting NAD+ salvage pathway
Related research questions
References
- Cantó C et al. The NAD(+) precursor nicotinamide riboside enhances oxidative metabolism and protects against high-fat diet-induced obesity. Cell Metab 2012;15(6):838-847. [PMID 22682224]
- Yoshino J et al. NAD(+) Intermediates: The Biology and Therapeutic Potential of NMN and NR. Cell Metab 2018;27(3):513-528. [PMID 29249689]
Research-questions pages describe research-context use of peptide-research terminology. They do not constitute medical, veterinary, or clinical advice. NAD+ is sold strictly as a research-grade reagent for laboratory and bench research applications.