Vitamin C May Cure Werner's Syndrome

A team of Canadian researchers have discovered that vitamin C stops and reverses the aging effects of Werner’s syndrome in mice. Their results can be found in the January 2010 print issue of the FASEB Journal. This fascinating news may some day be used to treat this disease in humans and may even be applicable to other progeroid syndromes.

Werner Syndrome, also known as "Adult progeria" is a very rare, autosomal recessive disorder characterized by the appearance of premature aging. It is sometimes referred to as progeroid syndrome as it more closely resembles accelerated aging than any other segmental progeria.

The defect of Werner Syndrome is located on the short arm of the 8th chromosome. The disorder is directly caused by shorter-than-normal length telomere maintenance. This lack of protection from deterioration at the end of the chromosome results in impaired DNA replication.

Individuals with this syndrome typically develop normally until they reach puberty. Following puberty they age rapidly, so that by age 40 they often appear several decades older. The age of onset of Werner syndrome is variable, but an early sign is the lack of a teenage growth spurt, which results in short stature. Other signs and symptoms appear when affected individuals are in their twenties or thirties and include loss and graying of hair, hoarseness of the voice, thickening of the skin, and cloudy lenses in both eyes. Overall, people affected by Werner syndrome have thin arms and legs and a thick torso.

Affected individuals typically have a characteristic facial appearance described as “bird-like” by the time they reach their thirties. Patients with Werner syndrome also exhibit genomic instability, hypogonadism, and various age-associated disorders, such as cancer, heart disease, atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, and cataracts. However, not all characteristics of old-age are present in Werner patients; for instance, senility is not seen in individuals with Werner syndrome. People affected by Werner syndrome usually do not live past their late forties or early fifties, often dying from the results of cancer or heart disease.

In this study, “scientists treated both normal mice and mice with a mutation in the gene responsible for Werner's syndrome (WRN gene) with vitamin C in drinking water. Before treatment, the mice with a mutated WRN gene were fat, diabetic, and developing heart disease and cancer. After treatment, the mutant mice were as healthy as the normal mice and lived a normal lifespan. Vitamin C also improved how the mice stored and burned fat, decreased tissue inflammation and decreased oxidative stress in the WRN mice. The healthy mice did not appear to benefit from vitamin C.”

Vitamin C or L-ascorbic acid is an essential nutrient for humans, in which it functions as a vitamin.

Some recommend the following daily dose of vitamin C:

• 75 mg/day: the United Kingdom's Food Standards Agency
  
• 45 mg/day: the World Health Organization
  
• 60 mg/day: Health Canada 2007
  
• 60–95 mg/day: United States' National Academy of Sciences

Vitamin C has proven over time to be a valid treatment and necessary nutrient in the prevention of scurvy. Scurvy is commonly associated with other diseases of malnutrition. Most diets in industrialized nations are vitamin C rich enough to prevent such diseases.

Vitamin C is an antioxidant. Individuals should ensure adequate intake for health reasons, but supplements are probably not necessary in most cases.

Some studies have discovered that high doses of vitamin C may have protective effects on lead-induced nerve and muscle abnormalities, especially in smokers.
In addition, there exists a vast amount of research on Vitamin C's effect on the common cold.

However, too much vitamin C has been linked to the following:

• indigestion
  
• diarrhea
  
• vomiting
  
• flushing of the face
  
• headache
  
• fatigue
  
• disturbed sleep
  
• skin rashes in infants
  
• iron poisoning in people with rare iron overload disorders
  
• kidney stones
  
• suppression of progesterone production from the corpus luteum which could lead to miscarriage
  
• decreases in mitochondria production

The research suggests that vitamin C appears to be quite beneficial for some, but not others. It seems that those with a mutation in the WRN gene or any gene affected by the WRN protein, which results in accelerated aging, may benefit from a little extra vitamin C.

Sources:
Vitamin C 'Cures' Mice With Accelerated Aging Disease
Werner Syndrome
Vitamin C

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