Research out of McGill University has found that vitamin D has the potential to keep cancer cell proliferation in check, by slowing the progression of cells from premalignant to malignant states. The discovering research team was led by John White and David Goltzman, professors in the department of physiology at McGill’s faculty of medicine.
Their findings, published recently in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed the active form of vitamin D acts by several mechanisms to inhibit both production and function of the protein cMYC. This protein, cMYC, drives cell division and is active at elevated levels in over half of all cancers.
“For years, my lab has been dedicated to studying the molecular mechanisms of vitamin D in human cancer cells, particularly its role in stopping their proliferation,” said White. “We discovered that vitamin D controls both the rate of production and the degradation of cMYC. More importantly, we found that vitamin D strongly stimulates the production of a natural antagonist of cMYC called MXD1, essentially shutting down cMYC function.”
Also in the study, the researchers applied vitamin D to the skin of mice and observed a drop in the level of cMYC and evidence of a decrease in its function. Moreover, other mice lacking the specific receptor for vitamin D were found to have strongly elevated levels of cMYC in a number of tissues including skin and the lining of the colon.
“Taken together, our results show that vitamin D puts the brakes on cMYC function, suggesting that it may slow the progression of cells from premalignant to malignant states and keep their proliferation in check. We hope that our research will encourage people to maintain adequate vitamin D supplementation and will stimulate the development of large, well-controlled cancer chemoprevention trials to test the effects of adequate supplementation,” said White.
While vitamin D can be obtained from dietary sources and direct exposure to the sun, the combination of poor diet and sun avoidance has created vitamin D deficiency in large parts of the population worldwide. There is a known link between insufficient amounts of the vitamin and increased incidence in a number of cancers, including colon cancer, cancers in the digestive tract, and certain types of leukemia.
The research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the National Cancer Institute/Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute.
