SIRT1 and metabolic syndrome: Secondly, given the prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome in the reproductive population in modern society, the hypersensitivity of SIRT1 KO embryos to maternal HFD feeding-induced intrauterine growth retardation and neurodevelopmental defects suggests that pharmacological activation of SIRT1 by small molecule activators and/or NAD+-boosting dietary supplements might be able to attenuate maternal obesity-associated neonatal complications and defective childhood neurodevelopment (Iessa and Bérard, 2015; Helle and Priest, 2020; Tong and Kalish, 2021).