Vitamin d deficiency reduces the immune response, phagocytosis rate, and intracellular killing rate of microglial cells.
Infect Immun. 2014 Jun;82(6):2585-94. doi: 10.1128/IAI.01814-14. Epub 2014 Mar 31.
Djukic M1, Onken ML, Schütze S, Redlich S, Götz A, Hanisch UK, Bertsch T, Ribes S, Hanenberg A, Schneider S, Bollheimer C, Sieber C, Nau R.
Meningitis and meningoencephalitis caused by Escherichia coli are associated with high rates of mortality and neurological sequelae.
A high prevalence of neurological disorders has been observed in geriatric populations at risk of hypovitaminosis D.
Vitamin D has potent effects on human immunity, including induction of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and suppression of T-cell proliferation, but its influence on microglial cells is unknown. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of vitamin D deficiency on the phagocytosis rate, intracellular killing, and immune response of murine microglial cultures after stimulation with the Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists tripalmitoyl-S-glyceryl-cysteine (TLR1/2), poly(I·C) (TLR3), lipopolysaccharide (TLR4), and CpG oligodeoxynucleotide (TLR9). Upon stimulation with high concentrations of TLR agonists, the release of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) was decreased in vitamin D-deficient compared to that in vitamin D-sufficient microglial cultures. Phagocytosis of E. coli K1 after stimulation of microglial cells with high concentrations of TLR3, -4, and -9 agonists and intracellular killing of E. coli K1 after stimulation with high concentrations of all TLR agonists were lower in vitamin D-deficient microglial cells than in the respective control cells.
Our observations suggest that vitamin D deficiency may impair the resistance of the brain against bacterial infections.
PMID: 24686054
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See also Vitamin D Life
- Search Vitamin D Life for meningitis 195 items as of Jan 2019
- Search Vitamin D Life for "bacterial infection" 1070 items as of March 2018
- Infections, vitamin D and genes – detailed review – Feb 2014
- Vitamin D reduced bacterial infection in cows – RCT Sept 2013
Note:
1) Mollaret's Meningitis is associated with the Herpes simplex virus - 1993
2) Herpes simplex virus is an enveloped virus
3) Vitamin D fights a variety of enveloped viruses
Vitamin D can inhibit enveloped virus (e.g. Herpes, Zoster, Epstein, Hepatitis, Ebola) – March 2011
The following Herpes Hypothesis from
Herpes Virus => deactivates the Vitamin D Receptor => Less Vitamin D to Tissue => Disease
Candidate solutions include
1) Treat Herpes
2) Increase the activation of the Vitamin D receptor (resveratrol, etc,)
3) Give massive doses of vitamin D
See also web
- Only Half of Infants With Meningitis Show Traditional Signs of the Disease Feb 2018
But, the study on this page indicates that that most of them probably have low vitamin D, and can be helped by Vitamin D - Vitamin D deficiency decreases survival of bacterial meningoencephalitis in mice Jan 2015
Free PDF online
benign recurrent lymphocytic meningitis ~ Benign recurrent aseptic meningitis ~ Mollaret's meningitis Wikipedia
Meningitis even more likely if poor Vitamin D Briding Protein in Cerebrospinal fluid - April 2019
Cerebrospinal fluid vitamin D-binding protein as a new biomarker for the diagnosis of meningitis.
Neurol Sci. 2019 Apr 13. doi: 10.1007/s10072-019-03873-9. [Epub ahead of print]
BACKGROUND:
Meningitis is an inflammatory process involving meninges. It is difficult to diagnose because of the absence of a diagnostic biomarker. We first report here the possibility of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) vitamin D-binding protein (VDBP) as a new biomarker for the diagnosis of meningitis.
METHODS:
This prospective study enrolled a total of 102 subjects (58 patients with non-neurologic disease, 17 patients with meningitis, and 27 patients with other neurologic diseases) from 2017 to 2018. CSF and blood samples were collected in pairs. Total 25(OH)D in CSF and serum and VDBP levels in serum were measured. GC genotyping was also performed to determine polymorphisms of rs4588 and rs7041. CSF total 25(OH)D and VDBP levels were compared with serum total 25(OH)D and VDBP levels according to disease (meningitis vs. non-meningitis). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis for the diagnosis of meningitis using CSF VDBP level was performed.
RESULTS:
Mean CSF VDBP and serum VDBP levels of all patients were 1.48 ± 1.32 and 181.28 ± 56.90 μg/mL, respectively. CSF VDBP level in the meningitis disease group (3.20 ± 1.49 μg/mL) was significantly (P < 0.001) higher than that in other disease groups. According to ROC curve analysis, the appropriate cut-off value for CSF VDBP was 1.96 μg/mL, showing sensitivity of 82.4% and specificity of 85.9%. AUC of CSF VDBP was 0.879 (95% CI: 0.789-0.962).
CONCLUSIONS:
CSF VDBP level showed very good diagnostic performance. It could be used as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of meningitis.