Vitamin D improves immunity against cancer by modulating the microbiota.
According to research conducted by the Francis Crick Institute in London, vitamin D reduces the risk of developing various types of cancer and improves the effectiveness of immunotherapy due to its effect on the intestinal microbiota.
Researchers have found that vitamin D increases the number of Bacteroid fragile , a type of gut bacteria that boosts the immune system’s ability to prevent cancer and stop it once it starts. The exact way in which these bacteria strengthen the immune system is not yet clear.
Given the current evidence, “we do not advocate any vitamin D-based interventions for the prevention or treatment of cancer; “This is basic science research,” he cautions in an email. Vanguard immunobiologist Cayetano Reis e Souza, leader of the work.
Vitamin D reduces the risk of tumor development and increases the effectiveness of immunotherapy.
However, “our findings (have) potential applications in clinical practice and public health,” the researchers write in the journal. The sciencewhere they present their results today.
The study analyzed data from 1.5 million people in Denmark who had their blood levels of vitamin D measured. In subsequent years, people with lower levels had a higher risk of developing cancer. This result complements previous studies with fewer participants and considered inconclusive, which already indicated a possible link between vitamin D and a lower risk of colorectal, breast, prostate and pancreatic cancer.
In a second analysis of cells from 2,678 patients with different types of cancer, lower vitamin D activity was found to be associated with shorter survival.
Researchers are holding off on making vitamin D intake recommendations pending more data.
In cases of immunotherapy drugs analyzed in another group of more than a thousand patients, vitamin D deficiency was also associated with less effective treatment.
The key lies in the effect of vitamin D on the gut microbiota, as researchers discovered in experiments on mice. They showed that dietary vitamin D acts on colonic epithelial cells in a way that increases bacterial populations. B. brittle. They subsequently showed that these bacteria, which had already been attributed to an oncoprotective effect in previous studies, enhance immunity against cancer.
Mice fed a vitamin D-enriched diet showed less propensity to develop tumors and better response to immunotherapy treatment. The same effect was observed in mice that directly ingested bacteria of this species. B. brittle.
The human body produces vitamin D in the skin under the influence of solar radiation.
“This may one day be important for treating cancer in humans, but we don’t know how or why vitamin D has these effects on the microbiome; We must carry out further investigation,” Cayetano Reis e Souza said in a statement released by the Francis Crick Institute.
“Vitamin D supplementation may be a relatively simple dietary intervention to begin testing,” said Fabien Franco and Kathy McCoy, researchers at the University of Calgary in Canada who were not involved in the study, in an analysis paper in The science.
Few foods contain enough vitamin D to provide the amount needed by the human body. It is found most abundantly in fatty fish (such as sardines and salmon) and foods that have vitamin D supplements (such as some grains). To a lesser extent, it is also found in egg yolks, liver, cheeses and mushrooms.
The body produces most of the vitamin D it needs in the skin through exposure to solar radiation, so vitamin D deficiency is more common in Northern Europe than in Mediterranean countries. But “you don’t have to sunbathe to enhance this process” as a little solar radiation is enough, warns Nisharnti Duggan of Cancer Research UK, one of the organizations involved in the study. Too much vitamin D can even be toxic.
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