Description
NAD was first described in 1906 by Harden and Young as a cell component that enhanced alcohol fermentation (Harden and Young, 1906). Then in 1936, Warburg showed that NAD is required for redox reactions (Warburg and Christian, 1936) and solidified the nomenclature: “NAD” refers to the chemical backbone irrespective of charge, “NAD+” and “NADH” refer to the oxidized and reduced forms respectively. In 1963, a breakthrough came with the discovery that NAD+ is a co-substrate for the addition of poly-ADP-ribose to proteins (Chambon et al., 1963).