Vitamin C

Improving a special kind of cell to help combat immune related problems

/ Yimy Villa / 1 Comment

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are a type of immune cell that play an extremely important role in maintaining stability in the body and preventing the body’s immune system from attacking its own cells and organs. This unique property makes Tregs extremely valuable to researchers as a potential treatment for immune related issues. One of these is autoimmune disease, which is a disease in which the body’s own immune system attacks healthy cells. Some examples of this are type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and lupus. Another immune related issue is graft vs. host disease (GvHD), which can occur after receiving a transplantation where the donated bone marrow or stem cells start attacking the recipient.

For this reason, researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) and Emory University School of Medicine, partially supported by a CIRM training grant , have been working to generate stable induced Tregs (iTregs) for treating autoimmune diseases and rejection of a transplanted organ. The teams were led by LJI professor Anjana Rao, Ph.D, and Emory instructor Benjamin G. Barwick, Ph.D. The two team study showed evidence that vitamin C and and specific proteins called TET can be combined to give Tregs their life-saving power. Studies have previously found that vitamin C can enhance the activity of TET proteins and prompt the generation of stable iTregs under lab conditions.

For this study, the researchers also analyzed gene expression patterns as well as changes that altered the physical structure of DNA in the induced Tregs. The team found a major modification involving the DNA itself and showed that TET enzymes were also involved. All of these interactions can eventually change how cells “read” the DNA code. They also observed the alteration of DNA accessibility which depends on whether DNA is loosely or tightly coiled. As the DNA coils unwind, regulatory regions become exposed which subsequently influence gene expression.

In a news release, LJI instructor Xiaojing Yue, Ph.D elaborated on the results of this study.

“Vitamin C can be used to stabilize iTregs generated in vitro. We hope that these kinds of induced Tregs can be used in the future for treatment of autoimmune diseases and organ transplantation.”

The full study was published in EMBO reports.

New research suggests taking a daily dose of vitamin C could prevent leukemia

/ Karen Ring / 2 Comments

Did you take your vitamins today? It’s not always easy to remember with such busy lives, but after you read this blog, you’ll be sure to make vitamins part of your daily routine if you haven’t already!

Two recent studies, published in the journals Nature and Cell, reported that vitamin C has a direct impact on the function of blood forming, or hematopoietic stem cells, and can be used to protect mice from getting a blood cancer called leukemia.

Science reporter Bradley Fikes compared the findings of the two studies yesterday in the San Diego Union Tribune. According to Fikes, the Nature study, which was conducted by scientists at UT Southwestern, “found that human and mouse hematopoietic stem cells absorb unusually large amounts of vitamin C. When the cells were depleted of vitamin C, they were more likely to turn into leukemia cells.”

As for the Cell study, scientists from NYU Langone Health “found that high doses of vitamin C can cause leukemic cells to die, potentially making it a useful and safe chemotherapy agent.” For more details on this particular study, see our blog from last week and the video below.

Dr. Benjamin Neel, director of NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, discusses how vitamin C may “tell” faulty stem cells in the bone marrow to mature and die normally, instead of multiplying to cause blood cancers.

Vitamin C levels are crucial for preventing leukemia

The common factor between the two studies is a gene called Tet2, which is turned on in blood stem cells and protects them from over-proliferating and acquiring genetic mutations that transform them into leukemia cells. If one copy of the Tet2 gene is genetically mutated, treating blood stem cells with vitamin C can make up for this partial loss in Tet2 function. However, if both copies of Tet2 are mutated, its protective functions are completely lost and blood stem cells can turn cancerous.

Fikes reached out to Sean Morrison, senior author on the Nature study, for an explanation about the relationship between vitamin C and Tet2, and how it can be leveraged to prevent or treat leukemia:

Sean Morrison

“The Cell study showed that high doses of vitamin C can compensate for Tet2 mutations, restoring normal function, Morrison said. Usually, transformation of normal cells into leukemic cells is irreversible, but the study demonstrated that’s not true when the leukemia is driven by Tet2 mutations.”

“The Nature study demonstrated that vitamin C is a limiting factor in the proper function of Tet2, Morrison said. People have two copies of the gene, one from each parent. When one of the genes is disabled, it’s important to take the full recommended dose of vitamin C so the remaining gene can exert its full tumor-suppressing effect.”

Before you place your bulk order of vitamin C on amazon, you should be aware that Morrison and his colleagues found that giving mice super doses of the supplement failed to further reduce their risk of getting leukemia. Thus, it seems that having the right levels of vitamin C in blood stem cells and healthy copies of the Tet2 gene are vital for preventing leukemia.

Vitamin C, a panacea for cancer?

These two studies raise important questions. Do vitamin C levels play a role in the development of other cancer cells and could this supplement be used as a treatment for other types of cancers?

Since the 1970’s, scientists (including the famous American scientist Linus Pauling) and doctors have pursued vitamin C as a potential cancer treatment. Early stage research revealed that vitamin C plays a role in slowing the growth of various types of cancer cells including prostate, colon and brain cancer cells. More recently, some of this research has progressed to clinical trials that are testing high-doses of vitamin C either by itself or in combination with chemotherapy drugs in cancer patients. Some of these trials have reported an improved quality of life and increased average survival time in patients, but more research and trials are necessary to determine whether vitamin C is a truly effective anti-cancer therapy.

Now that Morrison and his team have a better understanding of how vitamin C levels affect cancer risk, they plan to address some of these outstanding questions in future studies.

“Our data also suggest that probably not all cancers are increased by vitamin C depletion. We particularly would predict that certain leukemias would be increased in the absence of vitamin C. We’re collaborating with the Centers for Disease Control right now to look more carefully at the epidemiological data that have been collected over decades, to understand more precisely which cancers are at increased risk in people that have lower levels of vitamin C.”

CIRM weekly stem cell roundup: stomach bacteria & cancer; vitamin C may block leukemia; stem cells bring down a 6’2″ 246lb football player

/ Kevin McCormack / Leave a comment

gastric

This is what your stomach glands looks like from the inside:  Credit: MPI for Infection Biology”

Stomach bacteria crank up stem cell renewal, may be link to gastric cancer (Todd Dubnicoff)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that two-thirds of the world’s population is infected with H. pylori, a type of bacteria that thrives in the harsh acidic conditions of the stomach. Data accumulated over the past few decades shows strong evidence that H. pylori infection increases the risk of stomach cancers. The underlying mechanisms of this link have remained unclear. But research published this week in Nature suggests that the bacteria cause stem cells located in the stomach lining to divide more frequently leading to an increased potential for cancerous growth.

Tumors need to make an initial foothold in a tissue in order to grow and spread. But the cells of our stomach lining are replaced every four days. So, how would H. pylori bacterial infection have time to induce a cancer? The research team – a collaboration between scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin and Stanford University – asked that question and found that the bacteria are also able to penetrate down into the stomach glands and infect stem cells whose job it is to continually replenish the stomach lining.

Further analysis in mice revealed that two groups of stem cells exist in the stomach glands – one slowly dividing and one rapidly dividing population. Both stem cell populations respond similarly to an important signaling protein, called Wnt, that sustains stem cell renewal. But the team also discovered a second key stem cell signaling protein called R-spondin that is released by connective tissue underneath the stomach glands. H. pylori infection of these cells causes an increase in R-spondin which shuts down the slowly dividing stem cell population but cranks up the cell division of the rapidly dividing stem cells. First author, Dr. Michal Sigal, summed up in a press release how these results may point to stem cells as the link between bacterial infection and increased risk of stomach cancer:

“Since H. pylori causes life-long infections, the constant increase in stem cell divisions may be enough to explain the increased risk of carcinogenesis observed.”

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Vitamin C may have anti-blood cancer properties

Vitamin C is known to have a number of health benefits, from preventing scurvy to limiting the buildup of fatty plaque in your arteries. Now a new study says we might soon be able to add another benefit: it may be able to block the progression of leukemia and other blood cancers.

Researchers at the NYU School of Medicine focused their work on an enzyme called TET2. This is found in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), the kind of stem cell typically found in bone marrow. The absence of TET2 is known to keep these HSCs in a pre-leukemic state; in effect priming the body to develop leukemia. The researchers showed that high doses of vitamin C can prevent, or even reverse that, by increasing the activity level of TET2.

In the study, in the journal Cell, they showed how they developed mice that could have their levels of TET2 increased or decreased. They then transplanted bone marrow with low levels of TET2 from those mice into healthy, normal mice. The healthy mice started to develop leukemia-like symptoms. However, when the researchers used high doses of vitamin C to restore the activity levels of TET2, they were able to halt the progression of the leukemia.

Now this doesn’t mean you should run out and get as much vitamin C as you can to help protect you against leukemia. In an article in The Scientist, Benjamin Neel, senior author of the study, says while vitamin C does have health benefits,  consuming large doses won’t do you much good:

“They’re unlikely to be a general anti-cancer therapy, and they really should be understood based on the molecular understanding of the many actions vitamin C has in cells.”

However, Neel says these findings do give scientists a new tool to help them target cells before they become leukemic.

Jordan reed

Bad toe forces Jordan Reed to take a knee: Photo courtesy FanRag Sports

Toeing the line: how unapproved stem cell treatment made matters worse for an NFL player  

American football players are tough. They have to be to withstand pounding tackles by 300lb men wearing pads and a helmet. But it wasn’t a crunching hit that took Washington Redskins player Jordan Reed out of the game; all it took to put the 6’2” 246 lb player on the PUP (Physically Unable to Perform) list was a little stem cell injection.

Reed has had a lingering injury problem with the big toe on his left foot. So, during the off-season, he thought he would take care of the issue, and got a stem cell injection in the toe. It didn’t quite work the way he hoped.

In an interview with the Richmond Times Dispatch he said:

“That kind of flared it up a bit on me. Now I’m just letting it calm down before I get out there. I’ve just gotta take my time, let it heal and strengthen up, then get back out there.”

It’s not clear what kind of stem cells Reed got, if they were his own or from a donor. What is clear is that he is just the latest in a long line of athletes who have turned to stem cells to help repair or speed up recovery from an injury. These are treatments that have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and that have not been tested in a clinical trial to make sure they are both safe and effective.

In Reed’s case the problem seems to be a relatively minor one; his toe is expected to heal and he should be back in action before too long.

Stem cell researcher and avid blogger Dr. Paul Knoepfler wrote he is lucky, others who take a similar approach may not be:

“Fortunately, it sounds like Reed will be fine, but some people have much worse reactions to unproven stem cells than a sore toe, including blindness and tumors. Be careful out there!”