High-dose vitamin C infusions for leukemia?

High doses of Vitamin C cause blood cancer stem cells to mature and die
Vitamin C has many positive effects in the body and also helps to fight off diseases. In a recent study, scientists have now shown that vitamin C can also be used to fight blood cancer (leukemia). High-dose vitamin C treatments can therefore cause the death of faulty stem cells.

Ascorbic acid (vitamin C), according to scientists at the "Perlmutter Cancer Center" (USA), is able to ripen and kill defective stem cells that would otherwise multiply and cause blood cancer. With high-dose vitamin C injections could in experiments on mice stopped the spread of leukemia and the death of the existing cancer cells are reached, the researchers report. Their study results were published in the journal "Cell".

Vitamin C is important for fighting infections and performs many other functions. High-dose vitamin C infusions could also be used to treat leukemia. (Image: Yuliya / fotolia.com)

Disturbed maturation of blood stem cells
The blood stem cells (hematopoietic stem cells) are essential for the constant reproduction of white blood cells and must undergo a certain maturation process. In certain forms of leukemia, however, this process is disturbed and the cells continue to multiply in an immature state. The cause is a genetic change that leads to reduced production of the enzyme tet-methylcytosine dioxygenase 2 or TET2. This enzyme is needed by the blood stem cells to mature into white blood cells.

Defect involved in many diseases
"Changes in the genetic code or mutations that reduce TET2 function are found in 10 percent of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), 30 percent of those with a form of pre-leukemia called myelodysplastic syndrome, and in nearly 50 percent of patients chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, "the researchers report. You may be helped in the future with a high-dose vitamin C treatment.

Effects of vitamin C treatment studied
On genetically modified mice whose TET2 function was switched off, Luisa Cimmino's team of researchers investigated whether injecting a high dose of vitamin C would restore normal TET2 function. In fact, they found that Vitamin C's TET2 enzyme was again contributing to so-called DNA demethylation, allowing it to mature into stem cells and suppressing the growth of leukemia cancer stem cells. "We are excited about the prospect that high-dose vitamin C can be a safe treatment for blood diseases caused by TET2-deficient leukemia stem cells," said co-study author Prof. Benjamin Neel.

Combination with other medicines
"Interestingly, we also found that vitamin C treatment had an impact on leukemic stem cells that damaged their DNA," said study author Luisa Cimmino. For this reason, in a next step, the vitamin C treatment will be combined with a so-called PARP inhibitor, which kills cancer cells by blocking the repair of DNA damage. This is already approved for the treatment of certain types of ovarian cancer. Overall, vitamin C offers quite promising options for cancer therapy, so the conclusion of the scientists. However, injections of ascorbic acid are always to be assumed since the required concentrations can not be reached via food consumption or oral intake. (Fp)