This is a wonderful Academic Dissertation by Anna Minasyan, from Tampere University Medical School:
Vitamin D and the Nervous System
It contains an amazingly complete and fairly easy to read (if you can skim through all the citations) review of the known actions of Vitamin D in the body, including very good explanations of the known pathways. Here are a few sections that I believe are particularly important:
- Section 5.1.3 Vitamin D receptors - this section gives a very clear explanation of how Vit D metabolites enter cells and bind to Vitamin D receptors (VDRs) in the cell nucleus to influence cell function. As I've said before, I believe this is likely the mechanism that provides the greatest effect of Vit D over Cpni infection. That is, I believe strongly that it is likely through this mechanism that Vit D short circuits intracellulari forms of Cpn's influence over cellular apoptosisi mechanisms (via NF-KappaB and inhibitor of apoptosis proteins), making it much more difficiult for Cpn to "hijack" cells and replicate safely inside them. See here for more.
- Section 5.2 Effects of Vitamin D on the Nervous System - this section, I believe, is a must read for those with CNSi issues related to Cpn. Some points of interest:
- Vit D "participates in modulation of CNS detoxification pathways through regulation of y-Glutamyl transpeptidase, an enzyme which up-regulates the glutathione pool and reduces the production of reactive nitrogen species in astrocytes"
- Vit D "may inhibit the synthesis of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), an enzyme which is produces in response to inflammatory stimuli and have harmful effexts on the CNS"
- Vit D "may protect the structure and integrity of neurons through neurotrophin (NT) synthesis and nerve growth factor (NGF)"
- Section 9.4 The Role of VDR in Hearing (III) - while probably more interesting than important, this section is interesting in that Vit D's importance for preventing and possibly correcting hearing loss in not as widely publicized as other known functions of Vit D.
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