“Vitamin C (vitC) is essential for health and shows promise in treating diseases like cancer, yet its mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we report that vitC directly modifies lysine residues to form “vitcyl-lysine”-a process termed vitcylation. Vitcylation occurs in a dose-, pH-, and sequence-dependent manner in both cell-free systems and living cells. … The discovery of vitcylation as a distinctive post-translational modification provides significant insights into vitC’s cellular function and therapeutic potential, opening avenues for understanding its biological effects and applications in disease treatment.”

Find the paper and full list of authors in Cell.