Chromadex (OTCQX:CDXC) advanced in premarket trading after the innovator of proprietary health and nutritional ingredients unveiled a research and development agreement with the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Shares rose as much as 1.8% as of 8:17 a.m. in New York. The stock closed at $1.40 on Tuesday, up 59% this year.
The NIA will use Chromadex’s NIAGEN nicotinamide riboside (NR) to further investigate the effects of NR on wild type and DNA repair deficient mouse models, the Irvine, California-based company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Specifically, NIA will study effects of supplementation with NIAGEN NR on Cockayne syndrome and Ataxia Telangiectasia, Chromadex added.
NIA will also test whether NIAGEN rescues dysfunctional mitochondrial phenotype in csb-deficient C.Elegans.
The NIA is one of 27 institutes and centers at the NIH. It supports and conducts research on the nature of aging and the aging process and diseases and conditions associated with growing older.
The NIA has preliminary in vitro and in vivo research in animal models results that support the idea that NR may have beneficial effects on xeroderma pigmentosum, complementation Group A (XPA), a disease caused by mutations in genes involved in repairing damaged DNA.
"We are excited to continue and expand our R&D collaboration with the NIH for our NIAGEN NR," Chromadex Chief Executive Officer Frank Jaksch said in the statement.
Chromadex's NIAGEN is the first and only commercially available form of NR and is supported by five patents issued and several pending, with patents rights acquired from Dartmouth College, Cornell University and Washington University.