Vitamin D: a new anti-infective agent?

[Emily]

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nyas.12321/abstract?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false

Borella, E., Nesher, G., Israeli, E. and Shoenfeld, Y. (2014), Vitamin D: a new anti-infective agent?. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1317: 76?83. doi: 10.1111/nyas.12321
Before the antibiotic era, treatment of tuberculosis patients was restricted to sun exposure in sanatoria. Years later, it was found that 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 stimulates production of cathelicidins, a family of polypeptides found in lysosomes of macrophages and polymorphonuclear leukocytes. Cathelicidins serve a critical role in innate immune defense, which plays an important role in the suppression of Mycobacterium infections and other pathogens. It is believed that the increased incidence of the common cold and pneumonia during winter is related, in part, to decreased exposure to sunlight, resulting in a decreased synthesis of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3. An association has been established between low levels of vitamin D and upper respiratory and enteric infections, pneumonia, otitis media, Clostridium infections, vaginosis, urinary tract infections, sepsis, influenza, dengue, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV infections. Accumulating evidence suggests that 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 exerts protective effects during infections by upregulating the expression of cathelicidin and β-defensin 2 in phagocytes and epithelial cells. Vitamin D may be acting as a panaceal antibiotic agent and thus may be useful as an adjuvant therapy in diverse infections.

 

[mixin]

Re: Vitamin D: a new anti-infective agent?

The reference to

Before the antibiotic era, treatment of tuberculosis patients was restricted to sun exposure in sanatoria.

brought to mind the open air treatment for flu in 1918. Patients were placed in tents and on pleasant days, every patient was taken out of the tent and placed out into the open. The full paper is available at the link and is very interesting. Below are a couple of quotes from the paper.

THE OPEN AIR TREATMENT OF INFLUENZA.
WILLIAM A. BROOKS,
Surgeon-General, Massachusetts State Guard.

From the first day, the results were
startling. Almost every patient without
exception had a lower temperature at
night than in the morning, and felt decidedly
more comfortable.

Out of
between 5,000 or 6,000 men on the ships,
between 1,200 and 1,400 had contracted
the disease; 351 of the most serious cases
were treated at the tent hospital, of whom
35 died. 0
Very few of the attendants and nurses
contracted influenza while working in the
tent hospital.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1362338/pdf/amjphealth00231-0006.pdf

 

[Emily]

Re: Vitamin D: a new anti-infective agent?

So then what is new is our ability to explain what was observed about an old anti-infective agent.

 

[Sharky]

Re: Vitamin D: a new anti-infective agent?

A few links to other studies about Vitamin D, relative to reducing the risk and severity of influenza:

Japanese school children: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20219962
African-American women: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17352842
Mongolia: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22908115

Note that there have also been studies that show no effect, but these are flawed in two ways. First, the baseline levels were too high, and second, one of them used a monthly injection of 100,000 IU instead of regular oral dosing.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23032549
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19296870