Vitamin C was found to kill a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis in a recent lab test, according to researchers from New York's Yeshiva University. In the study, the vitamin C spurred on the creation of an oxygen species known as free radicals that killed the TB strain.
"We have only been able to demonstrate this in a test tube, and we don't know if it will work in humans and in animals. This would be a great study to consider because we have strains of tuberculosis that we don't have drugs for, and I know that in the laboratory we can kill those strains with vitamin C," said lead researcher Dr William Jacobs.
"It also helps that we know vitamin C is inexpensive, widely available and very safe to use. At the very least, this work shows us a new mechanism that we can exploit to attack TB."
According to the research team the next step in their study will be to examine possible uses of vitamin C alongside TB treatments.
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