Research Identifies How Vitamin D Combats MS

Main Category: Multiple Sclerosis
Also Included In: Nutrition / Diet
Article Date: 17 Aug 2011 - 2:00 PDT window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({ appId: 'aa16a4bf93f23f07eb33109d5f1134d3', status: true, cookie: true, xfbml: true, channelUrl: 'http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/scripts/facebooklike.html'}); }; (function() { var e = document.createElement('script'); e.async = true; e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js'; document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e); }()); email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

While for years scientists have noted an association between levels of vitamin D in a person's body and the person's ability to resist or minimize the effects of multiple sclerosis (MS), the mechanism involved has not been established. However new research by Sylvia Christakos, Ph.D., of UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School (principal investigator) Sneha Joshi (first author, a UMDNJ Ph.D. student), and colleagues (including co-investigator Lawrence Steinman, MD, of Stanford University) appears to have uncovered that process. The study, published in the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology, finds that vitamin D directly terminates the production of a disease-causing protein.

During MS ("EAE" in mice), a damaging protein called interleukin-17 (IL-17) is produced by immune cells in the brain. The investigators, a collaborative team of scientists from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and Stanford University, find that after vitamin D binds to its receptor, the receptor parks itself on the gene that encodes IL-17. By doing so, the receptor occupies a site normally reserved for a protein called NFAT, which is required to turn the gene on. The gene stays off and IL-17 levels plummet.

At the same time, the vitamin D receptor turns on another gene, whose product generates suppressive T cells that combat the destructive action of their IL-17-producing counterparts.

According to the researchers, the mechanism they identify suggests what might be a new path toward pharmaceutical treatment of MS, as well as therapies for other autoimmune diseases that might include rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, eczema and psoriasis.

Source: University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)

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posted by Annette on 20 Aug 2011 at 7:15 am

The title was fascinating and hopeful. As I read it I realized that when it came time to vote I just sort of ...hovered over the three! -It says I gave it a 3.5, but it's supposed to only be a three.- Rather than assuming I had been taken over by some silly entity that weighs in on articles only, I thought: Where does this disappointment come from? I realized then that this easy way of taking vitamin D was not explained to us. Is it D3? What dosage were the test subjects taking? Lastly, I suspect that the researchers, the grant supporters, etc. will probably come up with some elaborate way to package the application method, the formulation of a VITAMIN D compound that will magically make that particular vitamin disappear off the shelves so one can only get the doctor/FDA approved, ridiculously expensive version. I hate being this cynical, so tell us the dosage and type of vitamin D used already!

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posted by Renee on 22 Aug 2011 at 10:49 am

This information sounds promising. Please tell me how much Vitamin D is recommended.

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Posted in: Combats,Identifies,Research,Vitamin