Vitamin B3 shows potential for neurological disease Friedreich’s ataxia

Vitamin B3 may be useful in treating the inherited neurological disease Friedreich's ataxia, new findings suggest. Friedreich's ataxia is a debilitating disease with no cure. It typically takes hold in childhood and robs people of their coordination and motor functions over time. Speech becomes slurred and mobility impaired to the point of severe disability, often by the age of 30, and sufferers are at a higher risk of diabetes and heart disease. New research at Imperial College London suggests that vitamin B3, an essential nutrient found in many meats and vegetables, can restore levels of a protein that is deficient in Friedreich's ataxia patients. The disease's symptoms are a result of the body underproducing a protein called frataxin. In Friedreich's patients, the gene that codes for frataxin is abnormally expanded, containing hundreds or thousands of repeating triplets - blocks of three letters of DNA code - which switch off the frataxin gene.