A coenzyme, not a peptide
NAD+ is nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide: a coenzyme built from two nucleotides, present in every cell you have. No amino acids, no peptide bonds. Chemically it belongs to a different family from everything else on this page.
Its job is to carry electrons. Metabolism runs on a constant cycle of NAD+ accepting them and NADH giving them back, and that cycle underpins how cells extract energy from what you feed them.
Because it is not a peptide, almost nothing else on this site about sequences, residues and peptide bonds applies to it at all. The page on what peptides are is worth reading precisely to see where that boundary falls, since a catalogue that mixes chemical categories without announcing it is how misunderstandings start.
Two roles, one molecule
Beyond the redox cycling, NAD+ is consumed as a substrate by several enzyme families, the sirtuins and the PARPs among them. Those enzymes are involved in DNA repair and in regulating gene expression, and they use the molecule up rather than recycling it.
So supply and demand both matter, which is why NAD+ ended up at the centre of ageing research. Measured levels decline with age; whether that decline drives anything or merely accompanies it is still open.
People who search for what is nad+ are usually asking about that ageing literature, and it helps to separate two claims sitting inside it. That measured levels fall with age is an observation. That restoring them changes anything downstream is a hypothesis, and it is the one still being tested. The work indexed under the full chemical name is where the difference between them is easiest to see.
| Full name | Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide |
| Type | Coenzyme, not a peptide |
| Built from | Two nucleotides |
| Primary role | Electron transfer in metabolism |
| Consumed by | Sirtuins and PARP enzymes |
| Formats | Peptide pen and nasal spray |
| Research focus | Ageing, metabolism, DNA repair |
| Category | Research use only |
The table covers identity and handling. Results are outside its scope.
Precursors, and the delivery problem
Most consumer interest is in precursors like NR and NMN, taken orally on the reasoning that they raise intracellular NAD+ more efficiently than the molecule itself. Whether direct administration reaches cells usefully is one of the live questions in the field.
That is why this catalogue lists both a pen and a nasal spray. They represent different answers to the delivery question, not different strengths of the same answer.
Delivery is also what makes the molecule awkward to work with. It is not among the more robust compounds in solution, and the practical questions, how it is stored, how long a prepared solution stays usable, what temperature it tolerates, carry more weight here than the choice between formats. The nasal spray format page covers what a mucosal preparation involves in its own right.
The company NAD+ keeps in this catalogue
Two other compounds here occupy the same research conversation without sharing a mechanism with it. The SS-31 file covers a peptide aimed at the mitochondrial membrane itself, and the 5-Amino-1MQ page covers a small molecule acting on an enzyme in the same metabolic neighbourhood. Grouping the three by subject is useful for browsing and misleading the moment you read it as a claim that they do similar things.
The honest summary of this corner of the catalogue is that a question defines it rather than an answer. How cells manage energy across a lifetime is genuinely open, the molecules being studied in it are chemically unrelated, and the evidence behind each has to be weighed on its own terms rather than by proximity to the others.
NAD+ in the catalogue
Release testing puts every lot at 99% or above, certificate included.
Where NAD+ fits in
Follow-on reading for the questions this raises.
About NAD+
The questions we field repeatedly.