Study finds vitamin D alters mouse gut bacteria to give better cancer immunity

Medical Xpress / The Francis Crick Institute / Science ^ | April 25, 2024 | Evangelos Giampazolias et al

[ConservativeMind]

Researchers have found vitamin D encourages the growth of a type of gut bacteria in mice which improves immunity to cancer.

The researchers found mice given a diet rich in vitamin D had better immune resistance to experimentally transplanted cancers and improved responses to immunotherapy treatment. This effect was also seen when gene editing was used to remove a protein that binds to vitamin D in the blood and keeps it away from tissues.

Surprisingly, the team found that vitamin D acts on epithelial cells in the intestine, which in turn increase the amount of a bacteria called Bacteroides fragilis. This microbe gave mice better immunity to cancer as the transplanted tumors didn't grow as much, but the researchers are not yet sure how.

To test if the bacteria alone could give better cancer immunity, mice on a normal diet were given Bacteroides fragilis. These mice were also better able to resist tumor growth but not when the mice were placed on a vitamin D-deficient diet.

Previous studies have proposed a link between vitamin D deficiency and cancer risk in humans, although the evidence hasn't been conclusive.

To investigate this, the researchers analyzed a dataset from 1.5 million people in Denmark, which highlighted a link between lower vitamin D levels and a higher risk of cancer. A separate analysis of a cancer patient population also suggested that people with higher vitamin D levels were more likely to respond well to immune-based cancer treatments.

Although Bacteroides fragilis is also found in the microbiome in humans, more research is needed to understand whether vitamin D helps provide some immune resistance to cancer through the same mechanism.

Caetano Reis e Sousa said, "What we've shown here came as a surprise—vitamin D can regulate the gut microbiome to give mice better immunity to cancer.

[ConservativeMind]

Vitamin D encourages the growth of a gut bacteria that helps against cancer.

[ConservativeMind]

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[Scrambler Bob]

I guess I am getting protected from getting mouse cancer then.

[telescope115]

On top of everything else I take, I take a multivitamin w/125% of vitamin D, plus I drink milk (lactose free) and it has D in it. Maybe I’ll live to be 100😎

[Redcitizen]

Are you a man or a mouse? (Disney)