bims-vitmet 2025-10-26 papers

Issue of 2025–10–26
five papers selected by
Onurkan Karabulut, Berkeley City College

Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2025 Oct 13. pii: S2211-0348(25)00539-5. [Epub ahead of print]104 106797

Vitamin supplementation in the treatment of optic neuritis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Previous research has demonstrated an association between vitamin D deficiency and the risk of developing optic neuritis (ON) and multiple sclerosis (MS). However, the role of vitamin supplementation as an intervention for ON has not been thoroughly investigated. This systematic review and meta-analysis assesses whether vitamin supplementation improves visual parameters and disease status among ON patients.
RESULTS: A systematic literature search within PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Central Register of Clinical Trials yielded a total of 2465 peer-reviewed articles, from which 5 studies met inclusion criteria. The effect of MD1003 (high-dose biotin), vitamin A, and vitamin D on retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness from pooled results showed a mean change of 0.15 (SMD 0.15, 95 % CI, -0.33 to 0.64, I2 = 61 %, τ² = 0.11, p = 0.08), which was not significant. Meta-analysis of visual acuity due to MD1003 and vitamin A from two studies showed a mean change of 0.01 (SMD 0.01, 95 % CI, -0.34 to 0.35, I2 = 0 %, τ² = 0, p = 0.36). Significant improvements in RNFL thickness due to vitamin A, visual acuity due to vitamins B1, B6, and B12, foveal sensitivity due to vitamins B1, B6, and B12, and the rate of conversion of ON to MS due to vitamin D were observed in individual studies.
CONCLUSIONS: Although meta-analysis showed no significant effect of vitamins A, B1, B6, B7, B12, and D on several visual parameters, improvements observed in individual studies point to the essential role of vitamin sufficiency in ON. Due to the limited available evidence, additional high-quality studies are needed to determine the efficacy of vitamin supplementation as a potential therapeutic for ON.
LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: N/A.

Keywords: Multiple sclerosis; Optic neuritis; Vitamin D; Vitamin supplementation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msard.2025.106797

Curr Dev Nutr. 2025 Oct;9(10): 107499

A Hitchhiker Story? Exploring HDL as an Overlooked Vitamin D Carrier.

Jennifer D Bean, Catherine A Peterson.

Background: Twenty-five-hydroxyvitamin D, used to assess vitamin status, is the primary circulating form of vitamin D having a half-life measured in weeks, and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D is the active metabolite having a half-life measured in hours. Although there has been a preponderance of research on the roles of the active metabolite in health, there remains a limited understanding of the transport of the true vitamin forms, ergocalciferol and cholecalciferol.
Objective: This study proposes an alternative mechanism for vitamin D transport, hypothesizing that high-density lipoprotein (HDL) facilitates its movement from the intestine to the liver using cholesterol transporters.
Methods: This perspective challenges the sole reliance on the classical chylomicron pathway, proposing an alternative mechanism based on vitamin D's striking structural similarity to cholesterol. Both are steroids sharing key features, suggesting analogous intestinal absorption and transport routes. Evidence indicates vitamin D utilizes known enteric cholesterol transporters for uptake. We hypothesize that high-density lipoprotein (HDL) functions as an important interorgan carrier, facilitating vitamin D's movement from the intestine to the liver, using shared cholesterol transporters. This proposed HDL-mediated delivery is particularly relevant given vitamin D-binding protein's lower affinity for vitamin D compared with 25-hydroxyvitamin D.
Results: This mechanism offers a plausible explanation for observed correlations between vitamin D status (plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations) and factors affecting HDL cholesterol concentration (HDLc). Modulators that increase HDLc (e.g., fibrates, oral contraceptives, and exercise) are associated with improved vitamin D status, whereas those that decrease HDLc or inhibit vitamin D absorption (e.g., smoking and ezetimibe) are linked to lower vitamin D status. Although current human data are largely correlative and confounded by numerous factors affecting vitamin D status, the consistent associations warrant further investigation into vitamin D's precise trafficking among lipoprotein fractions.
Conclusions: Re-evaluating vitamin D's absorption and transport to include a role for HDL holds implications for optimizing vitamin D status.

Keywords: Vitamin D; absorption; cholecalciferol; high-density lipoproteins; lipoprotein; trafficking

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cdnut.2025.107499

Front Nutr. 2025 ;12 1653666

Vitamins formed by microorganisms in fermented foods: effects on human vitamin status-a systematic narrative review.

Erhan Keyvan, Elizabeth Adesemoye, Marie-Christine Champomier-Vergès, Emilie Chanséaume-Bussiere, Julie Mardon, Daniela Nikolovska Nedelkoska, Recep Palamutoglu, Pasquale Russo, Inga Sarand, Laurencia Songre-Ouattara, Biljana Trajkovska, Sibel Karakaya, Michail Syrpas, Christophe Chassard, Smilja Pracer, Guy Vergères, Daniel Heine, Christèle Humblot.

Introduction: Vitamin deficiencies remain a global health issue, particularly among vulnerable populations. As microorganisms also produce vitamins, this has led to considering Fermented Foods (FF) as potential vehicles for improving vitamin intake. This systematic narrative review, which exclusively relies on human studies, aims to assess the extent to which the consumption of vitamin-rich FF contributes to the maintenance or enhancement of vitamin status in healthy or deficient populations.
Methods: A comprehensive literature search (1970-2024) was conducted following the protocols of EFSA and the COST Action PIMENTO to identify interventional and observational studies investigating the influence of FF on biomarkers of vitamin status.
Results: Findings confirm that certain microorganisms, including Bacillus subtilis, Propionibacterium freudenreichii, and some lactic acid bacteria, can increase the levels of vitamins K2, B2, B9, and B12 in FF. Evidence of bioavailability and physiological effects is reported. Notably, folate (vitamin B9) bioavailability was enhanced in some cases following the consumption of Camembert cheese naturally rich in folate, while vitamin K2 status was effectively improved in several studies on natto (fermented soy) and in one study on Jarlsberg cheese. However, evidence for other B vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6 and B12) is limited or inconsistent, and no human evidence exists for other vitamins. Vitamin bioavailability was found to be significantly influenced by the food matrix, fermentation type, microbial strain, and the form of the vitamin (vitamers). Effects may also be influenced by interactions with gut microbiota, including microbial vitamin synthesis and modulation of absorption.
Discussion: Despite encouraging data, there is a lack of well-controlled, large-scale human studies to validate FF as a sustainable strategy to improve vitamin status. Future human studies research should investigate strain-specific effects, food matrix interactions, and long-term health outcomes.

Keywords: B vitamins; fermented foods; human intervention studies; microbial vitamin formation; vitamin K2; vitamin bioavailability

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2025.1653666

Biol Sex Differ. 2025 Oct 21. 16(1): 82

Sex-specific benefits of a combined supplementation of B vitamins, nicotinamide riboside, folate and cobalamin, in a murine model of heart failure.

Solène E Boitard, Morgane Delouche, Ahmed Karoui, Mélanie Gressette, Iman Momken, Bertrand Bouchard, Françoise Mercier-Nomé, Apolline Imbard, Christophe Lemaire, Anne Garnier, Matthieu Ruiz, Mathias Mericskay, Jérôme Piquereau.

Despite a substantial therapeutic arsenal to treat patients affected by heart failure (HF), no treatment specifically targets alterations of cardiac energy metabolism described in HF. Based on the results of previous studies demonstrating the cardiac preventive effects of B vitamins when introduced before inducing cardiac pressure overload in mice, we investigated the efficacy of a diet supplemented with a B vitamin cocktail (B3, B9 and B12 (3VitB)) to restore energy metabolism and improve cardiac function in an animal model of established HF. Four weeks after transverse aortic constriction (TAC) induction, male and female mice were treated with 3VitB. 3VitB increased life expectancy and reduced the TAC-induced alterations of cardiac parameters in males. Although these effects on survival and cardiac function were less clear in females due to their higher resistance to TAC, the 3VitB cocktail was beneficial in females as 8 weeks of treatment improved physical capacities and led to milder cardiomyocyte stress-induced hypertrophy in similar ways to those observed in males. In both sexes, 3VitB protected cardiac mitochondrial oxidative capacities, at least by supporting the process of mitochondrial biogenesis. Interestingly, our results revealed sex-specificities not only in response to cardiac pressure overload but also in response to 3VitB treatment. Overall, this study demonstrated the efficacy of 3VitB to preserved cardiac function and energy metabolism in an established HF model, especially in males that are more sensitive to cardiac pressure overload. This confers credit to vitamin supplementations and to metabolic therapy as new strategies to treat HF.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13293-025-00764-x

Eur Phys J E Soft Matter. 2025 Oct 22. 48(10-12): 61

An integrative MCDM framework using topological indices for ranking vitamins based on solubility properties.

Guoping Zhang, Yali Li, Shamaila Yousaf, Nabila Rani, Adnan Aslam.

This study presents a novel, integrated framework that combines graph-theoretic topological indices with multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques to systematically rank vitamins based on their solubility properties. The molecular structures of eleven essential vitamins were translated into quantitative descriptors using six distinct topological indices, which serve as proxies for key physicochemical properties governing solubility. These indices were then employed as criteria within three well-established MCDM methods: VIKOR, TOPSIS, and SAW to generate robust rankings. To ensure comprehensive and unbiased analysis, four contrasting weighting strategies (point allocation, standard deviation, entropy, and mean weight) were utilized to determine the relative importance of each criterion. The results demonstrate a high degree of consensus across methodologies, consistently identifying α -tocopherol (vitamin E) and nicotinic acid (niacin) as the top- and bottom-ranked vitamins, respectively, while revealing nuanced differences in the mid-tier rankings based on the chosen MCDM approach and weighting scheme. This work underscores the significant potential of integrating computational chemistry with decision science to solve complex ranking problems in nutrition and pharmacology. The proposed framework offers a powerful, transparent, and reproducible tool for optimizing vitamin selection in dietary formulation and pharmaceutical design, paving the way for its application to other classes of compounds.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/s10189-025-00528-w