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Combining a retrospective analysis of clinical records with in-depth laboratory studies, researchers have discovered that vitamin E can enhance immunotherapy responses by stimulating the activity of dendritic cells in the tumor. The researchers demonstrated that vitamin E directly binds and blocks the activity of the SHP1 checkpoint protein in dendritic cells, which increases antigen presentation and primes T cells for an anti-tumor immune response. Dietary supplements are thought to boost immunity, but little is known about the effects of supplements on immunotherapy activity. Patients with melanoma who took vitamin E while on anti-PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors had significantly improved survival compared...

Researchers say vitamin E might slow the progression of mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease -- the first time any treatment has been shown to alter the course of dementia at that stage. In a study of more than 600 older veterans, high doses of the vitamin delayed the decline in daily living skills, such as making meals, getting dressed and holding a conversation, by about six months over a two-year period. Vitamin E did not preserve thinking abilities, though, and it did no good for patients who took it with another Alzheimer's medication. But those taking vitamin E alone required less help...

AUGUSTA, Ga. – It's rubbed on the skin to reduce signs of aging and consumed by athletes to improve endurance but scientists now have the first evidence of one of vitamin E's normal body functions. The powerful antioxidant found in most foods helps repair tears in the plasma membranes that protect cells from outside forces and screen what enters and exits, Georgia Health Sciences University researchers report in the journal Nature Communications. Everyday activities such as eating and exercise can tear the plasma membrane and the new research shows that vitamin E is essential to repair. Without repair of muscle...

Updated trial data show 17 percent increase in cancer riskCleveland: Men who take a daily vitamin E supplement – a regimen once thought to reduce cancer risk – face an increased risk of prostate cancer, according to results of a large national study. The finding comes from a report summarizing the latest results of the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT). Eric Klein, M.D., chair of the Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute at Cleveland Clinic, is the lead author. SELECT began in 2001 to test earlier research suggesting selenium and vitamin E supplements may reduce the risk of...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Blocking the function of an enzyme in the brain with a specific kind of vitamin E can prevent nerve cells from dying after a stroke, new research suggests. In a study using mouse brain cells, scientists found that the tocotrienol form of vitamin E, an alternative to the popular drugstore supplement, stopped the enzyme from releasing fatty acids that eventually kill neurons. The Ohio State University researchers have been studying how this form of vitamin E protects the brain in animal and cell models for a decade, and intend to pursue tests of its potential to both...

The potent antioxidant may do more harm than good, TAU research suggestsVitamin-fortified foods and dietary health supplements can ease health worries. But what kinds of vitamins are right for you? And how much of them should you take, and how often? A research group from Tel Aviv University has done the most comprehensive and accurate study of clinical data on Vitamin E use and heart disease to date, and it warns that indiscriminate use of high-dose Vitamin E supplementation does more harm than good. Their results were recently reported in ATVB, a leading journal of cardiology, and discussed in the...

Scientists from University of Strathclyde have devised a novel way to harness natural vitamin E extract that would kill tumours within 10 days.Using a new delivery system, the research team could mobilise an extract from Vitamin E, known ton have anti-cancer properties, to attack cancerous cells. In the study conducted over skin cancer, the researchers found that tumours started to shrink within 24 hours and almost vanished in ten days. They believe the tumours might have been completely destroyed if the tests had continued for longer. When the tumours regrew, they did so at a far slower rate than previously....

Vitamin E linked to lung cancer High vitamin E doses were found to increase risk Taking high doses of vitamin E supplements can increase the risk of lung cancer, research suggests. The US study of 77,000 people found taking 400 milligrams per day long-term increased cancer risk by 28% - with smokers at particular risk. It follows warnings about similar risks of excessive beta-carotene use. Writing in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, an expert said people should get their vitamins from fruit and veg. Dr Tim Byers, from the University of Colorado, said a healthy, balanced...

ORLANDO — Vitamin E has finally fulfilled its promise as an antioxidant that can slow the progression of cardiovascular disease. Patients with diabetes who also had the haptoglobin 2–2 genotype and who were treated with 400 IU of vitamin E daily for 18 months had about half the incidence of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and stroke, compared with patients who received placebo in a study with 1,434 patients that was done in Israel, Dr. Shany Blum reported at the annual scientific sessions of the American Heart Association. Further analysis showed that the benefit was concentrated in patients with poorly controlled...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Generations of studies on vitamin E may be largely meaningless, scientists say, because new research has demonstrated that the levels of this micronutrient necessary to reduce oxidative stress are far higher than those that have been commonly used in clinical trials. In a new study and commentary in Free Radical Biology and Medicine, researchers concluded that the levels of vitamin E necessary to reduce oxidative stress – as measured by accepted biomarkers of lipid peroxidation – are about 1,600 to 3,200 I.U. daily, or four to eight times higher than those used in almost all past clinical...

The reported failure of vitamin E to prevent heart attacks may be due to underdosing, according to a new study by investigators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The findings, published early online in Free Radical Biology and Medicine, suggest that these earlier studies all had a fundamental flaw the doses used werent high enough to have a significant antioxidant effect. In fact, no studies have ever conclusively demonstrated the dose at which vitamin E can be considered an antioxidant drug, the researchers report. Oxidant injury, or oxidative stress, occurs when highly reactive molecules called free radicals attack and damage cellular...

A precursor of vitamin E has been shown to be effective against breast cancer cell lines which over-express human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER2). About 30% of breast cancers exhibit high levels of HER2 -- a feature that appears to make the disease resistant to many common treatments including chemotherapeutic agents. Now researchers in Griffith University's School of Medical Science have shown that pro-vitamin E or alpha-tocopheryl succinate can reduce tumour volume in experimental animals with high levels of HER2. Chief investigator Associate Professor Jiri Neuzil said alpha-tocopheryl succinate (alpha-TOS) had the potential to be an inexpensive, safe and selective...

There has been so much negative publicity surrounding the use of antioxidants by patients undergoing treatment for cancer that one could be forgiven for getting the impression that it is the use of antioxidants, rather than the toxicity of chemotherapy, that most seriously threatens the patient’s immune system. But now comes a report from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) with some surprisingly positive things to say about a vitamin E derivative. (The report appeared October 1, 2006 in the journal Cancer Research.)  University of Arizona scientists administered alpha-TEA, a chemically altered form of vitamin E, to cancer-susceptible mice...

AP SCIENCE WRITER A disappointing new study found that vitamin C and E supplements given to healthy pregnant women do not reduce their risk of developing preeclampsia, a complication that can be lethal to both mother and child. Similarly, a recent British study found that the supplements do not help women who run a high risk of preeclampsia, and might even harm their babies by leading to low birth weight. Preeclampsia happens when vessels in the mother's womb constrict, cutting off blood and oxygen to the fetus. It occurs in late pregnancy and produces a spike in blood pressure. No...

Cancer Cell Biology Vitamin E succinate suppresses prostate tumor growth by inducing apoptosis Mokenge P. Malafa 1 *, Frida D. Fokum 2, Jennifer Andoh 2, Leslie T. Neitzel 2, Sucharita Bandyopadhyay 3, Rui Zhan 3, Megumi Iiizumi 3, Eiji Furuta 3, Elizabeth Horvath 1, Kounosuke Watabe 3 1Division of GI Tumors, Department of Interdisciplinary Oncology, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL2Surgical Oncology Laboratory, Department of Surgery, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, IL3Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, IL email: Mokenge P. Malafa (malafamp@moffitt.usf.edu) *Correspondence to Mokenge P....

High dose vitamin E supplementation extends median and maximum lifespan in mouse studyA report published online in the American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology (http://ajpregu.physiology.org/) revealed the findings of researchers from the University of Cadiz in Spain and the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina that feeding mice high doses of vitamin E increased lifespan and improved neurological performance. Professor Alberto Boveris of the University of Buenos Aires and colleagues used a senescence accelerated strain of mice whose median lifespan is 60 to 70 weeks and whose maximum lifespan is 100 to 120 weeks. (Maximum lifespan is the...

  Receiving the best form of vitamin E is critical in obtaining the health benefits of this essential vitamin. One recent study showed that gamma-tocopherol, (which is the form that is highest in food) may actually be superior to alpha-tocopherol (the type that is found in most supplements) in the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers speculate this may explain the absence of vitamin E protection against Alzheimer's reported in some previous studies with the use of vitamin E supplements. Most of the previous studies have used vitamin E supplements that only contained alpha-tocopherol. To reach this conclusion, researchers examined whether...

Take the Right form of Vitamin E   Among the various forms of vitamin E, researchers discovered that one often-overlooked form, gamma-tocopherol, may have value as an anti-cancer agent. Gamma-tocopherol occurs naturally in plant seeds such as: Walnuts Pecans Sesame seeds According to a study, gamma-tocopherol inhibited the production of lab-cultured human prostate cancer cells. And although the presence of gamma-tocopherol caused cell death by interrupting the synthesis of sphingolipids (certain fatty molecules, which are important components of cell membranes), it left healthy human prostate cells unaffected. As researchers increased the amount of gamma-tocopherol, cancer cells slowed in growth...

Millions of Americans take big doses of vitamin E with the unproved assumption that the dietary supplement will improve their health. Now it turns out that large doses may actually be harmful. That perplexing news was delivered by researchers from Johns Hopkins medical institutions last week, in a scientific talk and medical journal article that combined and reanalyzed the results of 19 studies involving some 136,000 people in North America, Europe and China. The researchers concluded that daily doses of 400 international units and above, the amount typically contained in vitamin E capsules, slightly increased the risk of dying from...

Vitamin E may do "more harm than good" Vitamin E supplements, which millions take in the hope of longer, healthier lives, may do more harm than good, researchers have reported. In fact, people taking high doses of vitamin E may in some cases be more likely to die earlier, although the reasons are not clear, Dr. Edgar Miller of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who led the study, said on Wednesday. (snip) Miller and colleagues re-analysed 19 studies of vitamin E and health between 1993 and 2004. The trials involved more than 136,000 mostly elderly patients in North America, Europe...