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Test Can Pinpoint Vitamin B-12 Lack: UCD Scientists Assist in Research That May Help Treat Dementia.

Posted on: Tuesday, 4 April 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Jim Downing, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Apr. 4--A team of California researchers announced Monday the development of a new technique to diagnose a common cause of vitamin B-12 deficiency, a condition that affects millions of older Americans.

Researchers at UC Davis worked alongside peers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to develop and patent a technology that can determine whether B-12 is being absorbed in the digestive tract.

The new test method, which won't be widely available for five to 10 years, will detect a vitamin deficiency that can cause people to develop dementia and other neurological problems. Here's how the test works:

A patient ingests a tiny dose of vitamin B-12 that has been molecularly labeled with a radioactive form of the carbon atom, called carbon-14.

A drop of blood taken later from the patient is then analyzed in an instrument that counts individual atoms of carbon-14. Since each B-12 molecule has a carbon-14 atom attached, researchers look for how many of the carbon-14 atoms are picked up by the instrument. The more carbon-14 counted, the better the absorption of B-12.

The major breakthrough in the research came 18 months ago when University of California, Davis, postdoctoral fellow Peter Anderson successfully grew a strain of bacteria capable of performing the chemical reaction needed to attach a carbon-14 atom to a vitamin B-12 molecule.

While the new test requires a drop of blood, the current test requires collection of urine for 24 hours. It also requires exposure to more radiological material than doctors would like. As a result, it is seldom prescribed, said researcher Ralph Green, chairman of the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine. The radiation that a patient receives during the new test is small, a UC Davis news release said.

Green noted that the new test must be validated with more trials on human subjects and then approved by the Food and Drug Administration before it can be made available to physicians.

Woodland-based Vitalea Science Inc. is negotiating with the university to license the test, according to company President Stephen Dueker, a nutritional biochemist affiliated with UC Davis who has been working on the new technique for four years.

Danish firm Cobento Biotech A/S has also expressed interest, Green said.

Tests for concentration of B-12 in the bloodstream are straightforward. But low B-12 in the bloodstream can have a variety of causes.

The new test method announced Monday promises to be a simpler and more accurate way to trace a B-12 deficiency to an absorption problem.

B-12 absorption deficiencies can be treated with either monthly injections or high daily oral doses of the vitamin. Ordinarily, people get vitamin B-12 by eating animal protein, including meat, fish and dairy products.

In healthy people, the vitamin is absorbed into the bloodstream through the walls of the lower intestine, but a number of disorders can disrupt the process.

Over time, a deficiency of B-12 can lead to a condition known as pernicious anemia and a number of neurological problems.

Between 2 percent and 3 percent of Americans over age 65 - about 1 million people - suffer from pernicious anemia, Green said. Millions more have mild B-12 absorption disorders that may lead to other diseases, he said.

The research results were published in the April 11 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

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Source: The Sacramento Bee

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