A form of vitamin B3 called nicotinamide has been shown to reverse the molecular, cellular, and behavioral effects of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) in mice, according to a new study.

The study, published in the February 21, 2006, issue of the journal PLoS Medicine, suggests that nicotinamide may have potential as a preventative therapy in the treatment of FAS in humans. These findings may also have implications for children born with other neurologic disorders such as cerebral palsy.

Despite attempts to increase awareness of FAS, consumption of alcohol during pregnancy, especially binge drinking, has increased in recent years and currently there are no effective treatments to prevent or revert the devastating effects of FAS. Our findings offer hope that nicotinamide may fill this need, stated Dr. Daniel Herrera, assistant professor of psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University (New York, NY, USA).

Ethanol and nicotinamide were administered to seven-day-old postnatal mice, an age at which the brain development of mice is comparable to the human third trimester. The study found that most damage occurred in brain areas that are especially sensitive to ethanol during development, such as the anterior cingulate cortex (involved in cognition), hippocampus (needed for learning and memory), and thalamus (relays sensory information to other brain areas). Nicotinamide treatment decreased this damage. Several days following ethanol exposure, the research demonstrated reduced numbers of neurons (compared with the control brains) in similar brain regions. Again, nicotinamide reduced ethanols effects.

Lastly, the researchers used three standard behavioral tests to determine whether the reduction in ethanol-induced neuronal death produced by nicotinamide affected the behavior of adult mice. They reported that nicotinamide reversed the increase in hyperactivity and the decrease in fear caused by ethanol exposure, and prevented the impairment in learning and memory induced by ethanol.

Whereas the beneficial effects noted were most evident when nicotinamide was given at the same time or shortly after alcohol exposure, the study suggests that there is a time period of a few hours during which treatment with nicotinamide might be effective.

FAS is estimated to be the most common, preventable cause of mental retardation in the western world. About one in 1,000 U.S. children is born with FAS. Children with FAS characteristically have abnormal facial features and reduced growth. They also have central nervous system abnormalities that lead to impaired learning and memory skills, hyperactivity, and other behavioral problems. These neurologic disabilities arise because ethanol disrupts the formation and survival of neurons in the developing brain, particularly in the last trimester of pregnancy and the first few years of postnatal life when brain development is principally active.

Nicotinamide and other forms of vitamin B3 have been used for many years as dietary supplements to treat and prevent pellagra, a vitamin deficiency disease. Large oral doses of nicotinamide have also been used in clinical trials to treat type I diabetes and bullous pemphigoid (a chronic, autoimmune skin-blistering disease). Furthermore, recent animal research indicates that nicotinamide is also neuroprotective. Nicotinamide has little or no side effects and results in no birth defects.

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