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Scientists Find Vitamin C Kills Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

Posted by Soulskill on from the if-only-we-could-get-vitamin-C-into-common-foods dept.

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."

5 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Vitamin C... by sconeu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Somewhere in heaven, Linus Pauling is laughing his head off...

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    1. Re:Vitamin C... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, to be fair, most organisms in a test tube can be killed by putting in a lot of acid (vitamin C being ascorbic acid). The key thing is that you can't significantly change the pH of the blood / body without causing problems in the host. It is easy to kill shit in a test tube.

    2. Re:Vitamin C... by Bowling+Moses · · Score: 5, Interesting

      "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.

    3. Re:Vitamin C... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, to be fair, most organisms in a test tube can be killed by putting in a lot of acid (vitamin C being ascorbic acid)

      Actually, just vitamin C is Ascorbate.

      Ascorbate by itself is relatively unstable. Adding a hydrogen atom stabilizes it and makes it Ascorbic Acid which is probably the most common form of vitamin C.

      But you can add other atoms to it like Calcium, Sodium or Magnesium, which would make non-acidic, but still bioactive, forms of vitamin C.

  2. "More research needed." by spamchang · · Score: 5, Informative

    No context given in the article, but here's the abstract:

    "Drugs that kill tuberculosis more quickly could shorten chemotherapy significantly. In Escherichia coli, a common mechanism of cell death by bactericidal antibiotics involves the generation of highly reactive hydroxyl radicals via the Fenton reaction. Here we show that vitamin C, a compound known to drive the Fenton reaction, sterilizes cultures of drug-susceptible and drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis. While M. tuberculosis is highly susceptible to killing by vitamin C, other Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens are not. The bactericidal activity of vitamin C against M. tuberculosis is dependent on high ferrous ion levels and reactive oxygen species production, and causes a pleiotropic effect affecting several biological processes. This study enlightens the possible benefits of adding vitamin C to an anti-tuberculosis regimen and suggests that the development of drugs that generate high oxidative burst could be of great use in tuberculosis treatment."

    So you need ferrous ions as well. Interesting things to have in your lungs, but it's a start.