Spermidine, also known as spermidine trihydrochloride, is a polyamine substance that is widely distributed in organisms and is biosynthetic from putrescine and adenosylmethionine.
In 2009, a research achievement published in Cell Biology, a sub journal of Nature, opened up the tide of spermidine research. The research pointed out that spermidine can induce the transcription of autophagy related genes, thus enhancing cell autophagy, inhibiting cell oxidative stress and necrosis. In the experiment, spermidine was proved to be able to prolong the life of yeast, nematodes and drosophila. As soon as the research report was released, it immediately aroused widespread concern in the society.
In 2016, Japanese scientist Yasuo Otu was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for “the discovery of autophagy mechanism of cells”, thus confirming the autophagy mechanism of cells.
Cell autophagy is a mechanism of self-renewal and protection of cells. It can not only eliminate invading cell bacteria and viruses, but also affect the development of embryos and cell mutation, and can also eliminate damaged proteins and organelles, thus maintaining the overall stability of the body cells. The activation of spermidine in autophagy obviously makes it more attractive.
It is worth noting that the contribution of spermidine to health goes beyond this. In January 2018, the top journal Science published a blockbuster paper on spermidine, which summarized more than 130 scientific research advances in recent years, and systematically pointed out that spermidine has multiple functions, such as delaying aging, prolonging life, protecting cardiovascular system, preventing and fighting cancer, neuromodulation and neuroprotection, and improving metabolic diseases.
Alzheimer’s disease has become a global health problem. Every three seconds, there will be one case of dementia in the world. In 2018, there will be about 50 million people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease in the world. By 2050, the number will increase to 152 million.
The decline of cognitive ability not only reduces the quality of life of individuals, but also brings heavy burden to families and society. Compared with the unrealistic pursuit of “life extension”, it is more realistic to maximize the cognitive ability to maintain stability.
As early as 2013, a report published in the journal Natural Neuroscience pointed out the role of spermidine in cognitive regulation. It is pointed out that simple spermidine feeding can not only restore the polyamine level in the body of the elderly Drosophila melanogaster, but also effectively inhibit the memory impairment caused by aging.
On April 13, 2021, 29 scientific research institutions from Austria, Italy, Japan, Switzerland and other countries jointly published the latest article in Cell Reports. Research shows that spermidine dietary supplement can enhance the mitochondrial function of hippocampus through the blood brain barrier of mice, thereby improving cognitive function.
Unlike NMN, spermidine is not mysterious. The foods we see everyday, such as soybeans, mushrooms, cheese, etc., contain rich spermidine. At the same time, human intestine is also a production base of spermidine, and the metabolites of intestinal bacteria also contain spermidine needed by human body.
Therefore, the dietary supply of spermidine has two major directions: first, further enrich or extract the natural food materials rich in spermidine to make spermidine one of the core components to meet the necessary content requirements; The second is to improve the supply level of spermidine in the intestine by adjusting or strengthening the intestinal flora structure. Before that, intestinal flora has been proved to have the function of regulating cognition, and spermidine may also be one of the important metabolites.
Supported by many factors such as safe and reliable raw materials and rich sources, spermidine is easier to transform from theory to reality. Compared with many “doubts” existing in NMN, spermidine may be more easily recognized by society.