For the first time, vitamin D was shown to improve the immune system's ability to fight tuberculosis

Most people probably associate
tuberculosis with a leaky attic in 19th-century Paris.
But in fact, TB is still on the cusp
.
It is estimated that 2 billion people worldwide are currently living with the disease
.
More than 1.
5 million people die each year from the disease, mainly in countries such as South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique in the southern
hemisphere.

But a new study, recently published in Frontiers in Immunology, concludes that vitamin D can help the immune system fight tuberculosis
.
A rare patient made it possible for researchers to prove that vitamin D — the "sun vitamin" — helps the body fight tuberculosis
.

Martin Kongsbak-Wismann, associate professor at the LEO Foundation Centre for Skin Immunity Research at the University of Copenhagen, said: "We have shown for the first time that vitamin D improves the immune system's ability to
fight Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
"

A particular patient made it possible for researchers to prove the link
.
She was born carrying a mutation that prevented her body from responding
to vitamin D.
This mutation occurs in a very small number of people, with only about 200 cases reported globally
.

"We compared the cells of women with those of patients who were able to absorb vitamin D, which revealed the difference between the
two.
Immune cells in patients who are able to absorb vitamin D are more likely to fight tuberculosis
.
For women, vitamin D has no effect; Her body didn't react at all," Kongsbak-Wismann said
.

Today, TB is treated with antibiotics, but in the past, many TB patients were sent to nursing homes where they were left to lie in the
sun.
This caused their vitamin D levels to rise
.
As a result, researchers have long suspected that vitamin D can help fight TB, but until now they had no direct evidence
.

Vitamin D is beneficial for infected people

Martin Kongsbak-Wismann hopes the study will draw attention to
the fact that vitamin D treatment is a useful tool for preventing and treating TB.

"It may be a good idea
to give vitamin D to people who are highly exposed to TB infection, such as those in specific African countries.
Although we don't yet know how different levels of vitamin D affect infection risk and disease severity, at least it doesn't cause any negative side effects," he said
.

However, even if you take vitamin D supplements, you can still develop tuberculosis
.

"You need to look at it this way: If you're exposed to an infection, your immune system will try to fight Mycobacterium
tuberculosis.
Vitamin D boosts some parts of the immune system
.
But if you inhale a lot of Mycobacterium tuberculosis particles, or if other parts of your immune system aren't functioning properly, you can still get TB
even if your vitamin D levels are normal.
So it's not a 'panacea,' but it will definitely help," concludes Kongsbak-Wismann
.

How does vitamin D boost the immune system?

More specifically, the study showed that the female patient produced very little of the cathelicidins antimicrobial peptide, a natural toxin found in immune cells in the lungs that is used to fight tuberculosis
.
In most people infected with tuberculosis, TB bacteria attack the immune cells
in the lungs.

Immune cells fight bacteria
by eating them.
But Mycobacterium tuberculosis has developed various circumvention mechanisms that reduce the digestive capacity of immune cells, thereby killing Mycobacterium
tuberculosis.

"You could say that Mycobacterium tuberculosis has developed a way
to put immune cells to sleep.
This allows the disease to hide inside immune cells, making it invisible to the rest of the immune system," explains Martin Kongsbak-Wismann
.

This is where vitamin D comes in.

Because vitamin D counteracts the hypnotic effect
of tuberculosis bacteria by making immune cells produce more cathelicidin.

"Cathelicidin is like a tiny needle capable of piercing TB bacteria
.
When it happens, it weakens the hypnotic effect
of bacteria on immune cells.
This restores the ability of immune cells to kill TB bacteria," says Martin Kongsbak-Wismann
.

"We were surprised by the effect of vitamin D, which improved the cell's ability to fight Mycobacterium tuberculosis in immune cells from healthy control subjects, while in immune cells in female patients, we did not see a response
to vitamin D.
This suggests that vitamin D is key
to the immune system's ability to fight Mycobacterium tuberculosis and prevent TB.
”