Nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate




Nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate, (NAADP), is a Ca-mobilizing second messenger synthesised in response to extracellular stimuli. Like its mechanistic cousins, IP3 and cyclic adenosine diphosphoribose (Cyclic ADP-ribose), NAADP binds to and opens Ca channels on intracellular organelles, thereby increasing the intracellular Ca concentration which, in turn, modulates sundry cellular processes (see Calcium signalling). Structurally, it is a dinucleotide that only differs from the house-keeping enzyme cofactor, NADP by a hydroxyl group (replacing the nicotinamide amino group) and yet this minor modification converts it into the most potent Ca-mobilizing second messenger yet described. NAADP acts across phyla from plants to man.