American scientists have found that vitamin C is effective in fighting leukemia. A related study was published in the journal Cell, briefly reported by New Scientist.
Experts have found that vitamin C restores the activity of the TET2 gene in leukocytes, which in the case of leukemia is suppressed by about half compared to physiologically normal levels. It is the TET2 pathology that is one of the factors that allow tumor cells to multiply.
The authors came to similar conclusions after conducting experiments on mice. Rodents were given high doses of vitamin C for 24 weeks, at the end of the experiment in the control group, where the animals did not take the compound, there were three times more cases of abnormal concentration of leukocytes in the blood, which is one of the signs of incipient leukemia.
Experts note that this method of combating the disease is difficult to apply to humans, since the rodents received excessively high doses of vitamin C - one hundred milligrams (equivalent to two oranges) per injection. A human would need to take about three thousand times the compound, and intravenously.