Vitamin B3 may help in fight against staph infections, ‘superbugs’

A new study suggests that nicotinamide, more commonly known as vitamin B3, may be able to combat some of the antibiotic-resistance staph infections that are increasingly common around the world, have killed thousands and can pose a significant threat to public health.
The research found that high doses of this vitamin increased by 1,000 times the ability of immune cells to kill staph bacteria. The work was done both in laboratory animals and with human blood.
The findings were by researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, UCLA, and other institutions.
The work may offer a new avenue of attack against the growing number of ‘superbugs.’
‘This is potentially very significant, although we still need to do human studies,’ said Adrian Gombart, an associate professor in OSU