Vitamin C as cost effective adjunctive therapy for Tuberculosis
The team lead by Prof. Jaya Tyagi at the Biotechnology Department, AIIMS, discovered a cost-effective treatment of tuberculosis involving the dietary nutrient vitamin C. The researchers applied bioinformatics, microbiological and biochemical approaches to conclude that vitamin C is particularly useful in the treatment of tuberculosis when used in combination with the current first line anti-TB drugs (isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide and ethambutol) by altering the physiology of the bacteria.Vitamin C also maintains homeostasis and boosts host immune defence functions. The findings point to the impact that dietary supplements can have on disease outcomes and have huge clinical relevance where it can be critical in shortening the treatment time making vitamin C an attractive adjunct to TB control to be tested in humans. The research was carried out in collaboration with Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi and was recently published in Redox Biology along with a companion study published in BMC Genomics and was covered in press by The Hindu, Nature India and India Bioscience.
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| The team from left to right: Priyanka Duggal, Dr. Chanchal Kumar, Prof. Jaya Tyagi, Dr. Atul Vashist, Dr. Kriti Sikri (first author in the study) and Dr. Sakshi Dhingra Batra |
Publications:
1. Sikri, K., P. Duggal, C. Kumar, S. D. Batra, A. Vashist, A. Bhaskar, K. Tripathi, T. P.
Sethi, A. Singh and J. S. Tyagi. 2018. Multifaceted remodelling by vitamin C boosts sensitivity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis subpopulations to combination treatment by anti-tubercular drugs.
Redox biology. 15: 452-466.doi: 10.1016/j.redox.2017.12.020
2. Batra, S. D., M. Nandi, K. Sikri and J. S. Tyagi. 2017. Genome-wide expression profiling establishes novel modulatory roles of vitamin C in THP-1 human monocytic cell line. BMC Genomics. 18:252. doi: 10.1186/s12864-017-3635-4
Press Release:
1. Vitamin C could hasten TB cure. Nature India. January 12, 2018. doi:10.1038/nindai.2018.1 [https://www.natureasia.com/en/nindia/article/10.1038/nindia.2018.1].
2. Vitamin C improves efficacy of TB drugs. The Hindu. January 20, 2018. [http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/vitamin-c-improves-the-efficacy-of-tb- drugs/article22480806.ece].
3. Vitamin C-a cost effective weapon against the tuberculosis challenge. India Bioscience. February 14, 2018. [https://indiabioscience.org/news/2018/vitamin-c-a-cost-effective-weapon-against-the-tuberculosis-challenge ].