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Researchers from Albert Einstein
College of Medicine in New York have discovered that Vitamin C kills the TB
bacteria. They report that they made the discovery accidentally while
investigating how the bacteria develop resistance to the anti-TB drug isoniazid.
The researchers added isoniazid and
the reducing agent cysteine to the TB bacteria in a test tube with the
expectation that the bacteria would develop resistance. Instead, the
researchers killed the TB culture. Next, the researchers replaced the cysteine
with another reducing agent, Vitamin C, and it killed the bacteria also. When
the researchers omitted the TB drug isoniazid and used Vitamin C alone, the
outcome was the same—it killed the bacteria. They tested Vitamin C with
drug-resistant TB strains and had the same result. Also, the TB bacteria never
developed resistance to Vitamin C in the laboratory tests.
William Jacobs, the study’s senior
author, emphasized that so far, researchers have demonstrated these results
only in a test tube. The researchers did not know if it would work with humans
and, if so, at what dosage. The authors urged additional research into
potential uses of Vitamin C in TB treatment, noting that it was “inexpensive,
widely available, and very safe to use.”
The full report, “Mycobacterium
tuberculosis is Extraordinarily Sensitive to Killing by a Vitamin C-Induced
Fenton Reaction,” was published in the journal Nature Communications (2013;
doi:10.1038/ncomms2898).
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
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