Researchers have demonstrated that vitamin D promotes the growth of a gut bacteria in mice, enhancing their immunity to cancer. Findings suggest that vitamin D-rich diets and genetic enhancements of vitamin D availability can increase immune responses to cancer and immunotherapy effectiveness, although the precise mechanisms involving the gut microbiome remain unclear. Credit: SciTechDaily.com
. These mice were also better able to resist tumor growth but not when the mice were placed on a vitamin D-deficient diet.Previous studies have proposed a link between vitamin D deficiency and cancer risk in humans, although the evidence hasn’t been conclusive.which highlighted a link between lower vitamin D levels and a higher risk of cancer.
Evangelos Giampazolias, former postdoctoral researcher at the Crick, and now Group Leader of the Cancer Immunosurveillance Group at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, said: “Pinpointing the factors that distinguish a ‘good’ from a ‘bad’ microbiome is a major challenge. We found that vitamin D helps gut bacteria to elicit cancer immunity improving the response to immunotherapy in mice.
This research was funded by Cancer Research UK, the UK Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, an ERC Advanced Investigator grant, a Wellcome Investigator Award, a prize from the Louis-Jeantet Foundation, the Intramural Research Program of the NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health, CCR-NCI and the Danish National Research Foundation.