Vitamin D might help the immune system combat tuberculosis, research says

Most folks most likely affiliate tuberculosis with a leaky loft in Twentieth-century Paris. But as a matter of truth, tuberculosis will not be historical historical past.

It is estimated that two billion folks globally endure from the illness right this moment. And annually, greater than 1.5 million folks die from it – primarily on the southern hemisphere in international locations like South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique.

But vitamin D might help the immune system combat tuberculosis, a brand new research lately printed in Frontiers in Immunology concludes.

For the primary time, we’ve got proven that vitamin D improves the immune system’s skill to combat the tuberculosis bacterium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis.”

Martin Kongsbak-Wismann, Associate Professor, LEO Foundation Skin Immunology Research Center, University of Copenhagen

And we will thank a really particular affected person for making it potential for the researchers to show the connection. She was born with a mutation that makes her physique incapable of responding to vitamin D. The mutation is seen in only a few folks, and solely round 200 occurrences of the mutation have been reported globally.

“We have compared cells from the female patient with cells from patients who are able to absorb vitamin D, and this revealed a difference between the two. It is easier for the immune cells of patients capable of absorbing vitamin D to fight tuberculosis. In the female patient, vitamin D does not do anything; her body simply does not respond to it,” says Martin Kongsbak-Wismann.

Today, tuberculosis is handled with antibiotics, however previously many tuberculosis sufferers had been admitted to sanatoriums and made to lie out within the solar. This prompted their vitamin D ranges to rise. Therefore, researchers have lengthy suspected that vitamin D might help combat tuberculosis, however they didn’t have direct proof, till now.

Good concept to provide vitamin D to folks uncovered to an infection

Martin Kongsbak-Wismann hopes the research can generate consideration to the truth that vitamin D therapy is a great tool for stopping and treating tuberculosis.

“It might be a good idea to give vitamin D to people highly exposed to infection with tuberculosis, e.g. the populations of specific African countries. Even though we still do not know how different levels of vitamin D affect the risk of infection and the severity of the disease, at least it would not cause any negative side effects,” he says.

However, you’ll be able to nonetheless develop tuberculosis despite the fact that you are taking vitamin D dietary supplements.

“You need to look at it this way: If you are exposed to infection, your immune system will try to fight the Mtb. And vitamin D will strengthen parts of the immune system. But if you have inhaled a lot of Mtb particles or other parts of your immune system do not function properly, you may still develop tuberculosis, even though your vitamin D level is normal. So it is not a ‘wonder drug’, but it is bound to help,” Martin Kongsbak-Wismann concludes.

How does vitamin D strengthen the immune system?

More particularly, the research confirmed that the feminine affected person produced only a few cathelicidins, which is a pure toxin discovered within the immune cells of the lungs wanted to combat tuberculosis.

In most individuals contaminated by tuberculosis, tuberculosis micro organism assault the immune cells of the lungs.

The immune cells combat the micro organism by consuming them. But the tuberculosis bacterium has developed varied evasive mechanisms that scale back the immune cells’ skill to digest and thus to kill the Mtb.

“You could say that the tuberculosis bacterium has developed a way to lull the immune cells to sleep. This enables the disease the hide inside the immune cells, making it invisible to other parts of the immune system,” Martin Kongsbak-Wismann explains.

This is the place vitamin D enters the image. Because vitamin D is ready to counteract the soporific impact of the tuberculosis micro organism by making the immune cells produce extra of the cathelicidin toxin.

“Cathelicidin is like a microscopic needle that is able to pierce the tuberculosis bacteria. And when it does, it weakens the bacteria’s soporific effect on the immune cells. This restores the immune cells’ ability to kill tuberculosis bacteria,” says Martin Kongsbak-Wismann and provides:

“We were amazed by the effect of vitamin D. In immune cells from healthy control subjects, vitamin D improved the cells’ ability to fight Mtb, whereas in the female patient’s immune cells we saw no response to vitamin D. This shows that vitamin D is key to the immune system’s ability to fight Mtb and prevent tuberculosis.”