Thinking beyond the bone, researchers from Buck Institute in Novato, California, have used the nematode worm to enhance their understanding of the unknown roles of vitamin D. With the help this worm, also known as C. elegans, researchers have found “that vitamin D works through genes known to influence longevity and impacts processes associated with many human age-related diseases, ” as stated in the October 25, 2016 news release.
“Vitamin D…extended median lifespan by 33 percent and slowed the aging-related misfolding of hundreds of proteins in the worm, ” said Gordon Lithgow, Ph.D., senior author and Buck Institute professor. “Our findings provide a real connection between aging and disease and give clinicians and other researchers an opportunity to look at vitamin D in a much larger context.”
According to the news release, “The study shines a light on protein homeostasis, the ability of proteins to maintain their shape and function over time. It’s a balancing act that goes haywire with normal aging—often resulting in the accumulation of toxic insoluble protein aggregates implicated in a number of conditions, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases, as well as type 2 diabetes and some forms of heart disease.”
“Vitamin D3, which is converted into the active form of vitamin D, suppressed protein insolubility in the worm and prevented the toxicity caused by human beta-amyloid which is associated with Alzheimer’s disease, ” said Lithgow. “Given that aging processes are thought to be similar between the worm and mammals, including humans, it makes sense that the action of vitamin D would be conserved across species as well.”
“This work is really appealing and challenging to the field, ” said Janice M. Schwartz, M.D., a professor of medicine and bioengineering and therapeutic sciences the University of California, San Francisco, and a visiting research scientist at the Jewish Home in San Francisco. She has studied vitamin D supplementation in the elderly. “We focus on vitamin D and the bones because that’s where we can measure its impact. I believe that vitamin D is as crucial for total body function and the muscles as it is for bones. Vitamin D influences hundreds of genes—most cells have vitamin D receptors, so it must be very important.”
Dr. Lithgow told OTW, “It appears vitamin D is affecting the rate of aging. That means it could be having effects of various age-related changes including those that happen to bone in late life.”
