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Scientists Find Vitamin C Kills Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis
AndyKrish writes "A BBC story reports that scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University found Vitamin C kills drug resistant tuberculosis (abstract). Though results are preliminary — the lead investigator of the study said, 'We have only been able to demonstrate this in a test tube, and we don't know if it will work in humans and in animals' — this is an exciting development in the fight against drug-resistant TB."
Sigh, it is almost too easy to kill stuff in test tube, HIV can be killed with garlic. It is quite rare to get it to work in a living being. Unfortunately this article will bring out the anti-vaccers, germ theory deniers and other woowoo people out of the woodworks...
- Raynet --> .
"An estimated 650,000 people worldwide have multidrug-resistant TB..."
So, every one of those 650,000 people aren't drinking enough orange juice?
"We have only been able to demonstrate this in a test tube, and we don't know if it will work in humans and in animals."
Oh, ok. When they come up with a Vitamin C IV drip cocktail or an inhaler/vaporizer that when used it kills TB and actually cures someone, then that will be news. Until then, we can at least look on the bright side: You can't hurt yourself by taking too much Vitamin C nearly as easily as you can with others like Vitamin A, etc. Someone out there is gonna hear that "Vitamin C kills TB" on the interwebs and OD on it, sooner or later.
"Really, this will likely be quickly quashed by the Pharmas. Or they will patent a delivery transport - with the only FDA-approved administration protocol."
Those actions are pretty much diametrically opposed. Option one, quash something that's already known presumably by managing to get a hold of the IP (good luck) and then sitting on it for years using a minimum of effort and cost. Option two, take something that works only on tuberculosis culture, do the R&D to make it work in humans, get it through clinical trials, then manufacture it and try to make a profit. Tuberculosis is a grand master at hide and go seek. It lives inside of human cells part of the time so delivering the vitamin C/vitamin C derivative is non-trivial. Even for a pathogen hanging out nekkid in the bloodstream the delivery of the drug to its target is non-trivial, 10 years and $1 billion of R&D is the rule of thumb to get to FDA approval from early stage research.
When I was a graduate student in a molecular biology program in the late 80s or early 90s, i heard, in person, Linus talk
the professors at my institution were pretty sarcastic, but one thing linus said stuck in my brain:
I take 10 grams a day, because if you look at how much vitamin C is in the blood of our closest animal relatives, chimps and gorillas, a human would need to take 10 grams a day to get the same level in the blood...but don't buy it from the drugstore , it is very exspensive, i buy it in 10 pound drums from a chemical company in cleveland OH (or maybe Akron)
of course, humans and guinea pigs are very unsusal in that they require vitamin c in the diet; almost all other mammals can make their own.