London – Vitamin D may one day help humans ward off deadly cancer, a new study has found. Scientists from the Francis Crick Institute, National Cancer Institute (NCI), and Aalborg University find that vitamin D promotes the growth of certain types of gut bacteria and improves cancer immunity in mice. did.
More specifically, the study authors found that when mice were fed a diet rich in vitamin D, the rodents showed stronger immune resistance to transplanted cancers and also improved response to immunotherapy treatment. I discovered that it was done. This effect remained even after scientists used gene editing to remove the protein that binds vitamin D in the blood and move it away from tissues.
Surprisingly, the research team noted that vitamin D acts on epithelial cells in the intestines, resulting in an increase in the amount of bacteria called. Bacteroides fragilis. The microorganisms improved the mice’s immunity to cancer. The study found that transplanted tumors did not grow as much, but researchers are still unsure why this happens.
To test whether this bacterium alone could improve cancer immunity, it was given to a group of mice fed a normal diet. Bacteroides fragilis. These rodents were also better able to resist tumor growth. However, this was not the case when the mice were fed a vitamin D-deficient diet.
Previous studies have suggested a link between vitamin D deficiency and cancer risk in humans, but nothing conclusive has been published yet. To find out, the study authors analyzed a dataset of 1.5 million Danes and found that low vitamin D levels were associated with increased cancer risk. It became clear. Second, another analysis of a different cancer patient population also showed that people with higher vitamin D levels were more likely to respond well to immune-based cancer treatments.
nevertheless, Bacteroides fragilis Vitamin D is also present in the human microbiome, but further research is needed to understand whether vitamin D helps confer immune resistance to cancer through the same mechanism.
“What we showed here was a surprise: Vitamin D can modulate the gut microbiome to favor certain bacteria, giving mice better immunity against cancer. ” said Caetano Reis e Souza, senior and director of Crick’s Immunobiology Laboratory. Study authors, in a media release.
“While this may one day be important for human cancer treatment, we do not know how and why vitamin D exerts this effect through the microbiome. Further research is needed before we can conclusively say that improvements are effective in preventing or treating cancer.”
“Practical identification of the factors that differentiate ‘good’ from ‘bad’ microbiomes is a major challenge. Vitamin D helps gut bacteria induce cancer immunity and improves response to immunotherapy in mice. “We found that it improved,” explains Evangelos Giampazorias, a former post-doctoral fellow at Crick University and now group leader of the cancer immunosurveillance group at Cancer Research UK’s Manchester Institute.
“The key question we are currently trying to answer is how exactly vitamin D supports a ‘good’ microbiome. Answering this could reveal new ways in which the microbiome influences the immune system, offering exciting possibilities in cancer prevention and treatment. ”
“These findings contribute to the growing body of knowledge about the role of the microbiome in cancer immunity and the potential for dietary interventions to fine-tune this relationship to improve patient outcomes.” Further research is needed to fully understand the underlying mechanisms and how they can be used to develop personalized treatment strategies,” said Romina Gold, Stadtmann Research Scientist, NCI Cancer Research Center. Schmidt commented.
“We know that vitamin D deficiency can cause health problems, but there is not enough evidence linking vitamin D levels to cancer risk. This early-stage study in mice Combined with analysis of population data, we aim to address gaps in the evidence.The findings suggest a possible link between vitamin D and the immune response to cancer. , further research is needed to confirm this,” concludes Dr Nisharnthi Duggan, Research Information Manager at Cancer Research UK.
‘Exposure to a little sunlight can help our bodies produce vitamin D, but we don’t need sunbathing to accelerate this process. Just spending short periods of time in the sun can produce enough vitamin D. Vitamin D can also be obtained through diet and supplements, and we know that staying safe in the sun can reduce your risk of cancer. Therefore, be sure to seek shade, cover up, and wear sunscreen when the sun is strong.
The research will be published in a journal science.
