NRPT
Nicotinamide riboside with pterostilbene, sold as Basis
Written by Aaron CuhaReviewed Sep 2026
Also known as: Basis, Elysium Basis, NR plus pterostilbene, EH301
In 120 healthy adults aged 60 to 80, it raised whole blood NAD by about 40 percent at the recommended dose and about 90 percent at double dose, sustained over 8 weeks. Every published NRPT trial has measured blood NAD or safety, and the one trial that measured a tissue outcome, muscle repair after experimental injury in 32 older adults, was null.
Overview
NRPT is a two-ingredient supplement: nicotinamide riboside, an NAD precursor, plus pterostilbene, a methylated relative of resveratrol described as a sirtuin activator. The product is sold as Basis by Elysium Health. Its distinguishing feature among consumer NAD products is that it has a published randomised trial programme at all.
The pivotal study is exactly what it says it is. 120 healthy adults aged 60 to 80, randomised to placebo, the recommended dose, or double dose, for 8 weeks. Whole blood NAD rose about 40 percent in the single-dose group and about 90 percent in the double-dose group at 4 weeks compared with placebo and baseline, and stayed up through week 8. No serious adverse events. Placebo NAD did not move. The trial was run by an independent contract research organisation in Ontario, and funded by Elysium, with six of the seven authors employees and shareholders of the company.
That is a clean and credible biomarker result. It is also the entire efficacy claim.
The second trial gave escalating doses to 24 hospitalised patients with acute kidney injury for two days. It is worth reading for one incidental finding: acute kidney injury itself halved whole blood NAD at 48 hours in the placebo patients. NRPT raised NAD 37 percent at 48 hours across all dose steps pooled, with only one individual step reaching significance on its own and considerable variation between people. It was a safety study and reported no change in creatinine or eGFR, which it was not designed to detect.
The third trial is the one that matters most and is quoted least. 32 adults aged 55 to 80 were given NR 1000 mg plus pterostilbene 200 mg daily and then subjected to experimental muscle injury by electrically induced eccentric work. Substantial injury was induced. Muscle stem cell content, proliferation and cell size were unaffected. Muscle fibre area, central nuclei and embryonic myosin heavy chain were unaffected. That trial was funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, not by the manufacturer.
Mechanism of action
Two components with two proposed mechanisms. Nicotinamide riboside is phosphorylated by nicotinamide riboside kinases to NMN and then adenylylated to NAD, raising the substrate pool for sirtuins, PARPs and CD38. Pterostilbene is a dimethylated analogue of resveratrol with better oral bioavailability, included on the rationale that supplying NAD without activating the enzymes that use it is only half the intervention. The combination rationale is plausible and has never been tested against either component alone in a human trial, so whether pterostilbene contributes anything to the observed NAD rise, or to anything else, is unknown.
Human evidence
Three published randomised placebo-controlled trials totalling 176 participants. Two measured blood NAD and safety and found what they were looking for. The one that measured a tissue outcome found nothing.
- n=120 healthy adults aged 60 to 80, 8 weeks: whole blood NAD up about 40 percent at the recommended dose and about 90 percent at double dose, sustained; no serious adverse events. Manufacturer funded, authors are employees and shareholders.
- n=24 hospitalised patients with acute kidney injury, 2 days: pooled NAD up 37 percent at 48 hours (P=0.002), with only one of four dose steps significant alone and large variation between patients. Safety labs unchanged.
- Incidental finding from that trial worth its own line: acute kidney injury itself halved whole blood NAD at 48 hours in the placebo patients.
- n=32 adults aged 55 to 80, experimental muscle injury: no effect on muscle stem cell content, proliferation or size, fibre area, central nuclei or embryonic myosin heavy chain. Independently funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
- No published trial has compared NRPT against nicotinamide riboside alone, so the contribution of pterostilbene is untested in humans.
- A large trial of nicotinamide riboside with pterostilbene in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, NCT04562831, n=380, is active and not recruiting. Its results are not published.
What this does not tell you: The pivotal trial measured a blood metabolite and safety and nothing else, so it cannot support any claim about how a person feels or functions. It was funded by the company that sells the product, with six of seven authors employees and shareholders, which does not make the NAD result wrong but does mean the choice of endpoint was made by an interested party. The only trial that tested a tissue-level outcome was independently funded and null. Nothing in this record addresses ageing, cognition, energy or lifespan, and the mouse lifespan test of the main ingredient was null in the most rigorous programme available.
Reading the research record
NRPT is the clearest illustration in this batch of a company doing real clinical research and the real clinical research answering a question nobody was actually asking.
The 2017 trial is a properly designed randomised controlled trial with 120 participants, an independent CRO, a dose-response arm and a full disclosure of funding and shareholdings. It established, convincingly, that the product raises whole blood NAD by about 40 percent at the label dose and holds it there. That claim is true and this site does not dispute it.
The question is what the reader is meant to do with it. The product is not sold as a way to raise a blood metabolite. It is sold on the implication that raising the metabolite does something. The only published NRPT trial that tested whether it does something at the tissue level induced real muscle damage in 32 older adults and found the supplement changed nothing about how the muscle repaired itself. That trial was funded by an independent foundation.
There is also the lifespan null for the main ingredient. The National Institute on Aging Interventions Testing Program fed nicotinamide riboside to genetically heterogeneous mice from mid-life at three independent sites and found no lifespan effect in either sex, in the same cohort where a positive control extended male lifespan by 19 percent. That is the most rigorous mammalian lifespan test available and consumer copy for NAD products almost never mentions it.
One thing on the credit side that deserves to be stated. The acute kidney injury study reported that the illness itself halved blood NAD within 48 hours. That is a genuine and interesting observation about NAD as a disease biomarker, and it came out of a company-funded safety study.
Manufacturer funding and manufacturer employment of the authors is the norm in this category rather than an occasional footnote, and it is disclosed on each page here rather than buried. The NRPT trials were funded by Elysium Health with company employees and shareholders among the authors. The MIB-626 trials list Metro International Biotech as a funder with company employees among the authors. The nicotinamide riboside dose-response study was funded by ChromaDex with two company employees as authors. The head-to-head comparison of three NAD boosters was written largely by Nestle Research employees. None of that makes a result wrong. It does mean that the independently funded trials in this field deserve more weight than their size alone would suggest, and the independently funded trials are mostly the negative ones.
The evidence, charted
Fig. 1 · evidence composition
3of 4 citations (75%) are in people
Counted from the citation list on this page. The Human count is the same number shown in the badge at the top. Both understate any literature larger than the sources we cite.
Fig. 2 · evidence over time
Evidence spans 4 distinct years, 2017 to 2022, counted from the citation list on this page.
Fig. 3 · legal status at a glance
US
Not approved
UK
Not approved
AU
Not approved
CA
Not approved
Not approved in any of the four jurisdictions shown. A jurisdiction's classification is a regulatory fact, not a verdict on the science; see Legal status below for the full text and any notes.
Fig. 4 · dose response
No human dose response curve exists
We draw this figure where the data supports it. For this compound in humans it does not, so the panel stays empty rather than borrowing an animal curve and implying it transfers.
Key studies & citations
- Human2017
Repeat dose NRPT (nicotinamide riboside and pterostilbene) increases NAD(+) levels in humans safely and sustainably: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study
The pivotal trial. 120 healthy adults aged 60 to 80 randomised to placebo, recommended dose NRPT, or double dose, taken daily for 8 weeks. Whole blood NAD rose approximately 40 percent at the recommended dose and approximately 90 percent at double dose after 4 weeks compared with placebo and baseline, and the increase was sustained through the full 8 weeks. Placebo NAD did not rise. No serious adverse events. The endpoints are blood NAD and safety; no functional or clinical outcome was assessed. Funded by Elysium Health, which sells the product as Basis, and conducted by an independent contract research organisation, KGK Synergize. Six authors are Elysium employees and shareholders. A correction was published in the same journal in 2018.
npj Aging and Mechanisms of Disease - Human2022
A randomized placebo-controlled trial of nicotinamide riboside and pterostilbene supplementation in experimental muscle injury in elderly individuals
The functional test, and it was null. 32 elderly participants aged 55 to 80 received NR 1000 mg plus pterostilbene 200 mg daily and underwent experimental muscle injury induced by electrically stimulated eccentric work. Substantial injury was induced and muscle stem cells showed large recruitment demand, but muscle stem cell content, proliferation and cell size were not affected by supplementation. There was no effect on muscle fibre area, central nuclei or embryonic myosin heavy chain. NCT03754842. Funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, not by the manufacturer.
JCI Insight - Human2020
Nicotinamide riboside with pterostilbene (NRPT) increases NAD(+) in patients with acute kidney injury (AKI): a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, stepwise safety study of escalating doses of NRPT in patients with AKI
NCT03176628. 24 hospitalised patients with acute kidney injury received escalating doses of NRPT or placebo twice daily for 2 days across four dose steps up to 1000 mg NR with 200 mg pterostilbene. Acute kidney injury itself reduced whole blood NAD by 50 percent at 48 hours in placebo patients (P=0.05). Pooling all steps, NRPT increased NAD by 37 percent at 48 hours (P=0.002), but only one individual step reached significance and interindividual variability was considerable. Creatinine, eGFR, electrolytes, liver function tests and blood counts were unchanged. Three of 20 patients on NRPT reported minor gastrointestinal effects. Two authors are Elysium Health employees.
BMC Nephrology - Animal2021
17-a-estradiol late in life extends lifespan in aging UM-HET3 male mice; nicotinamide riboside and three other drugs do not affect lifespan in either sex
The relevant lifespan null for the nicotinamide riboside half of this product. In the National Institute on Aging Interventions Testing Program, genetically heterogeneous UM-HET3 mice fed nicotinamide riboside from 8 months of age showed no significant effect on lifespan in either sex in the pooled three-site dataset, the programme's primary endpoint. In the same cohort and the same three sites, 17-alpha-estradiol extended median male lifespan by 19 percent, demonstrating the experiment could detect a large effect. Funded by the National Institute on Aging, conflicts declared as none.
Aging Cell
Frequently asked questions
Does Basis actually raise NAD?
Yes, and the evidence for that specific claim is good. In 120 healthy adults aged 60 to 80 over 8 weeks, whole blood NAD rose about 40 percent at the recommended dose and about 90 percent at double dose, sustained for the full trial, with no rise in the placebo group. The trial was run by an independent CRO and funded by the manufacturer.
Does raising NAD by 40 percent do anything?
No published NRPT trial has shown that it does. The only trial that tested a tissue-level outcome, muscle repair after experimental injury in 32 older adults, found no effect on muscle stem cell content, proliferation, size, fibre area or regeneration markers, and it was independently funded.
What does pterostilbene add?
Unknown in humans. No published trial has compared NRPT against nicotinamide riboside alone, so there is no way to attribute the observed NAD rise, or anything else, to the pterostilbene component. The rationale, that supplying NAD without activating the enzymes that use it is only half the job, is reasonable and untested in people.
Is it safe?
The published safety record is good within its limits. No serious adverse events in 120 healthy older adults over 8 weeks, unchanged safety labs in hospitalised acute kidney injury patients over 2 days, and minor gastrointestinal effects in 3 of 20 patients in that study. Eight weeks is the longest published exposure, and nobody with an active cancer was enrolled in any of these trials.
Do NAD supplements extend lifespan?
The main ingredient here was tested in the National Institute on Aging Interventions Testing Program, which feeds compounds to genetically heterogeneous mice at three independent sites. Nicotinamide riboside had no effect on lifespan in either sex in the pooled data, in a cohort where a positive control extended male lifespan by 19 percent. There is no human lifespan data for any NAD precursor.