N-Acetyl carnosine is a supplement that provides your body with L-carnosine, an essential antioxidant molecule. Your skeletal muscle, heart muscle and central nervous system have high concentrations of L-carnosine. It’s a vital building block for your body, helping to build powerful muscles and tissues and prevent aging. As a supplement, N-Acetyl carnosine may improve your energy levels, boost heart health and prevent cataracts. It has an additional acetyl group bound to L-carnosine. This acetyl group protects the L-carnosine, keeping it from being degraded. It means that N-acetyl L-carnosine is more effective than taking L-carnosine directly. It also makes it more efficient, so you can take a lower dose when supplementing. Although the body produces L-carnosine naturally, N-Acetyl carnosine supplements can increase its levels. The supplement is also very safe, and few users experience notable side effects.

N-Acetylcarnosine to control the signs of ageless vision

Carnosine (β-alanyl-l-histidine) was discovered and its structure determined in the very beginning of the 20th century. It was the first and the simplest example of biologically active peptides (actually a dipeptide), opening the long list of widespread natural protein and peptide regulators of metabolism. l-carnosine and its ophthalmic prodrug bioactivating N-Acetyl carnosine (NAC) are part of this group of products. NAC, like its parent compound, carnosine, occurs naturally throughout the human body. Both compounds are found primarily in the heart and skeletal muscles and in the brain. Innovative Vision Products, Inc. (IVP)’s scientists developed the lubricant eye drops (Can-C?) designed as 1% N-Acetyl carnosine (NAC) prodrug of l-carnosine containing a mucoadhesive cellulose-based compound combined with corneal absorption promoters in a sustained drug delivery system. Only the natural l-isomeric form of N-Acetyl carnosine raw material was specifically synthesized at the cGMP facility and employed for the manufacturing of Can-C eye drops. [1]

We evaluated NAC 1% eye drops in the short-term 9-month therapy of cataracts and for improvement of visual functions in older subjects with no cataract. The N-Acetyl carnosine 1% eyedrops seem to improve the vision of the older adult subjects regardless of whether they have cataracts or not, but the improvement of visual acuity was significantly better in the group of cataract subjects versus the older adult subjects in the noncataract matched older adult group. This is an additional mode of evidence suggesting that carnosine applied in the form of N-Acetyl carnosine reverses lens opacity in humans. The treatment with N-Acetyl carnosine is improving eyesight in older adult cataract-free patients as intraocular released carnosine reacts with oxygen radicals, lipid peroxidation products, and carbohydrate oxidation products accumulated in the crystalline human lens with aging. The entire body of supporting research on N-Acetyl carnosine and its bioactivated principle carnosine reveals its promise as a water-soluble universal antioxidant that works at several levels to defend against the oxidative stresses to the lens, glycosylation problems, and protect the lens proteins and the membrane lipids from oxidative damages thus preventing and reversing age-related cataracts in human eyes.

N‐acetylcarnosine (NAC) drops for age‐related cataract

Cataract is the leading cause of world blindness. The only available treatment for cataract is surgery. Surgery requires highly‐trained individuals with expensive operating facilities. Where these are not available, patients go untreated. A form of treatment that did not involve surgery would be a useful alternative for people with symptomatic cataract who are unable or unwilling to undergo surgery. When applied as an eye drop, L‐carnosine cannot penetrate the eye. However, when applied to the surface of the eye, N-Acetyl carnosine (NAC) penetrates the cornea into the front chamber of the eye (near to where the cataract is), where it is metabolised into L‐carnosine. Hence, it is possible that use of N-Acetyl carnosine eye drops may reverse or even prevent progression of cataract, thereby improving vision and quality of life. We planned to include randomized or quasi‐randomised controlled trials where NAC was compared to control in people with age‐related cataract. There is currently no convincing evidence that N-Acetyl carnosine reverses cataract, nor prevents progression of cataract. Future studies should be randomized, double‐masked, placebo‐controlled trials with standardised quality of life outcomes and validated outcome measures in terms of visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and glare, and large enough to detect adverse effects.[2]

One theory of ageing is that these chemicals may be harmful and might lead to age‐related changes in our body, such as cataract. This is known as oxidative stress. N-Acetyl carnosine is thought to be able to combat some of the effects of oxidative stress as it has anti‐oxidant properties. If NAC can stop the lens from becoming cloudy, or reduce the cloudiness, this might improve people's vision and quality of life. In Babizhayev 2002, 49 people (76 eyes) were enrolled in Russia and the United States. Some participants were followed up to six months and others to 24 months, however, the rationale for this was not clear, and these were described as two different studies. Participants were randomized to N-Acetyl carnosine 1% (26 people, 41 eyes) or control. Outcomes measured included cataract appearance (image analysis), visual acuity (Snellen), a measure of glare sensitivity and adverse effects. People with cataract were identified from the medical notes and the participants were randomly allocated to N-Acetyl carnosine (35 people) or placebo (30 people) and followed up for four months. Outcomes included visual acuity (logMAR) and the halometer glare disability test.

A clinical study of the new vision-saving drug N-Acetyl carnosine eyedrop therapy

The antioxidant activity of L-carnosine (beta-alanyl-L-histidine, bioactivated in ocular tissues) versus N-Acetyl carnosine was studied in aqueous solution and in a lipid environment, employing liposomes as a model of lipid membranes. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) were generated by an iron/ascorbate promoter system for induction of lipid peroxidation (LPO). L-carnosine, which is stabilized from enzymatic hydrolysis, operates as a universal aldehyde and ROS scavenger in both aqueous and lipid environments and is effective at preventing ROS-induced damage to biomolecules. Scientists at Innovative Vision Products, Inc. (IVP), developed lubricant eyedrops designed as a sustained-release 1% N-Acetyl carnosine prodrug of L-carnosine. The eyedrops contain a mucoadhesive cellulose-based compound combined with corneal absorption promoters and glycerine in a drug-delivery system. Anti-aging therapeutics with the ophthalmic drug eyedrop formula including N-Acetyl carnosine showed efficacy in the nonsurgical treatment of age-related cataracts for enrolled participants in the prospective, randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled crossover clinical trial after controlling for age, gender, and daily activities.[3]

Overall, accumulated study data demonstrate that the IVP-designed new vision-saving drugs, including N-Acetyl carnosine eyedrops, promote health vision and prevent vision disability from senile cataracts, primary open-angle glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and aging. N-Acetyl carnosine eyedrop therapy is the crown jewel of the anti-aging medical movement and revolutionizes early detection, treatment, and rejuvenation of aging-related eye-disabling disorders. N-Acetyl carnosine, as an innovative medical science tool and component of the home medicine and alternative medicine approaches, has the potential to alleviate visual impairment and its associated social, economic, and political woes for an aging population. In a cohort in excess of 50,500 various patients seeking cutting-edge medical care, the N-Acetyl carnosine topical eyedrops target therapy was demonstrated to have significant efficacy, safety, and good tolerability for the prevention and treatment of visual impairment in this older population with relatively stable patterns of causes for blindness and visual impairment.

References

[1]Babizhayev MA, Burke L, Micans P, Richer SP. N-Acetylcarnosine sustained drug delivery eye drops to control the signs of ageless vision: glare sensitivity, cataract amelioration and quality of vision currently available treatment for the challenging 50,000-patient population. Clin Interv Aging. 2009;4:31-50. Epub 2009 May 14. PMID: 19503764; PMCID: PMC2685223.

[2]Dubois, Vincent Dj-P, and Andrew Bastawrous. “N-acetylcarnosine (NAC) drops for age-related cataract.” The Cochrane database of systematic reviews vol. 2,2 CD009493. 28 Feb. 2017, doi:10.1002/14651858.CD009493.pub2

[3]Babizhayev, Mark A et al. “N-acetylcarnosine lubricant eyedrops possess all-in-one universal antioxidant protective effects of L-carnosine in aqueous and lipid membrane environments, aldehyde scavenging, and transglycation activities inherent to cataracts: a clinical study of the new vision-saving drug N-acetylcarnosine eyedrop therapy in a database population of over 50,500 patients.” American journal of therapeutics vol. 16,6 (2009): 517-33. doi:10.1097/MJT.0b013e318195e327