Vitamin B3 — in clinical doses — may be able to fight off some increasingly common and potentially dangerous antibiotic- resistant staph infections, including methicillin- resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), according to a new study.

The research found that high doses of the vitamin, which is also called nicotinamide, increased the ability of immune cells to kill staph bacteria a thousandfold.

There is no evidence, according to the authors, that normal diets or even conventional amounts of vitamin supplements would prevent or treat a bacterial infection. (Chicken and turkey, many kinds of fish, rice or wheat bran, peanuts and yeast are among food sources of B3.) In the study, the vitamin was given at therapeutic megadoses far beyond what any normal diet could provide, but in doses that would be safe for human consumption for medical purposes, according to the study’s authors.

The research included tests with one of the most common and serious staph infections, MRSA, which can cause life-threatening illness. The researchers said the widespread use of antibiotics has helped increase the emergence and spread of this bacterial pathogen. MRSA is increasingly prevalent in hospitals and nursing homes, and is also on the rise in prisons, the military, among athletes and in settings where many people come into close contact, according to a news release from Oregon State University.

How it works

The research, done with laboratory animals and with human blood, found that clinical doses of B3 increased the numbers and efficacy of what are called neutrophils, a type of white blood cell that can kill harmful bacteria.

The researchers have also studied other ways in which B3 could help fight bacterial infections.

They have been investigating a rare disease called neutrophil-specific granule deficiency. Due to a mutation of a certain gene (known as CEBPE), people with this disease have significantly weakened immune systems, leaving them prone to life-threatening infections, including staph. The gene regulates some antimicrobial activity. Vitamin B3 has been shown to increase the expression of closely related genes.

In other words, the vitamin could activate antimicrobial genes that boost the ability of immune cells to kill bacteria.

“We found that if you over-express the gene in normal individuals, the body’s immune cells do a better job of fighting off infection,” said the study’s co-author Pierre Kyme, a Los Angeles-based researcher for the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases in the Maxine Dunitz Children’s Health Center and the Immunobiology Research Institute.

“This is potentially very significant, although we still need to do human studies,” said Adrian Gombart, an associate professor in Oregon State University’s Linus Pauling Institute. “Antibiotics are wonder drugs, but they face increasing problems with resistance by various types of bacteria, especially Staphylococcus aureus.”

“This could give us a new way to treat staph infections that can be deadly, and might be used in combination with current antibiotics,” Gombart said. “It’s a way to tap into the power of the innate immune system and stimulate it to provide a more powerful and natural immune response.”

The study, conducted by researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, UCLA and other institutions, was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation in August. The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

— Reporter: 541-383-0304, aaurand@bendbulletin.com