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REVIEW article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Nutritional Immunology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1464329
This article is part of the Research Topic Micronutrients, Immunity and Infection View all 22 articles

The Immunomodulatory Effects of Vitamins in Cancer Disease

Provisionally accepted
Camelia Munteanu Camelia Munteanu 1*Sorin M. Mârza Sorin M. Mârza 2*Ionel Papuc Ionel Papuc 2
  • 1 Department of Plant Culture, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, ROMANIA, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
  • 2 Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj Napoca, Cluj, Romania

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Nutrition may affect animal health due to the strong link between them. Also, diets improve the healing process in various disease states. Cancer is a disease, where the harmful consequences of tumors severely impair the body. The information regarding the evolution of this disease is extrapolated from human to animal because there are few specific studies regarding nutritional needs in animals with cancer. Thus, this paper aims to review the literature regarding the immunomodulatory effects of vitamins in mammal cancer diseases. An adequate understanding of the metabolism and requirements of nutrients for mammals is essential to ensuring their optimal growth, development, and health, regardless of their food sources. According to these: 1) Some species are highly dependent oon vitamin D from food, so special attention must be paid to this aspect. Calcitriol/VDR signaling can activate pro-apoptotic proteins and suppress anti-apoptotic ones. 2) Nitric oxide (NO) production is modulated by vitamin E through inhibiting transcription nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) activation. 3) Thiamine supplementation could be responsible for the stimulation of tumor cell proliferation, survival, and resistance to chemotherapy. 4) Also, it was found that the treatment with NO-Cbl in dogs is a viable anti-cancer therapy that capitalizes on the tumor-specific properties of the vitamin B12 receptor. Therefore, diets should contain the appropriate class of compounds in adequate proportions. Also, the limitations of this paper are that some vitamins are intensively studied and at the same time regarding others, there is a lack of information, especially in animals. Therefore, some subsections are longer and more heavily debated than others.

    Keywords: Cancer, Neoplasia, nutrition, Fat-soluble vitamins, water-soluble vitamins, immunomodulation cancer, Immunity, Mammals, Vitamins

    Received: 13 Jul 2024; Accepted: 17 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Munteanu, Mârza and Papuc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Camelia Munteanu, Department of Plant Culture, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, ROMANIA, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
    Sorin M. Mârza, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj Napoca, 400372, Cluj, Romania

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.