Could Vitamin B5 help alleviate anaemia in MDS Patients?
1 Apr. 2025In 2023, Dr. Kevin Rouault-Pierre (Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London) and his research team published a study in Science Translational Medicine, highlighting the potential of Vitamin B5 to boost red blood cell production in MDS patients. While the initial research was laboratory-based, the next phase will focus on patients. MDS UK is delighted to be funding this phase, which is the development of an assay (a range of tests) to measure Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) levels in patients.
The recording below features a March 18, 2025, presentation to MDS UK members by Dr. Onima Chowdhury, Dr. Rouault-Pierre, and their team discussing this study.
Watch: A recorded presentation about the Vitamin B5 study
As well as providing the funding for this exciting study, MDS UK will be helping facilitate the trial’s PPIE requirement (Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement).
Further to this, Dr Kevin Rouault-Pierre, in collaboration with Dr Onima Chowdhury from Oxford University Hospitals, and supported by MDS UK, are preparing an application to fund a full, UK-wide, clinical trial. This is sponsored by Birmingham University Cancer Research Clinical Trials Unit, with the aim of applying to fund the clinical trial in 2025 and will get underway in early Spring 2025.
The Vitamin B5 Study Team
Dr Kevin Rouault-Pierre is group leader and a Reader in Stem Cell Biology and Diseases at the Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London.
Dr Shoshana Burke is a Clinical Research Fellow in Dr Rouault-Pierre’s laboratory and a clinician at the Barts Health NHS Trust.
Dr Onima Chowdhury is a consultant haematologist in the Haematology department at Oxford University Hospitals where she looks after patients with myeloid malignancies. She is also a clinical lead in the diagnostics laboratory.
For more information
- See article in 'Science Translational Medicine' for more on the study that demonstrated Vitamin B5's role in restoring red blood cell production in MDS patient cells 'Vitamin B5 and succinyl-CoA improve ineffective erythropoiesis in SF3B1-mutated myelodysplasia'
- Visit the British Society of Haematology to read more about the first stage of the study and how 'Vitamin B5 could help patients with myelodysplastic syndrome'
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