Natural Supplement May Boost Cancer-Fighting Immunity

A natural supplement strengthened lasting anticancer immune responses in obese mice. Weight loss can improve many aspects of health, but the immune system may not recover as quickly. Obesity can leave behind long-lasting changes in the bone marrow, where immune cells are formed, potentially weakening the body’s ability to respond to cancer even after excess [...]

A natural supplement strengthened lasting anticancer immune responses in obese mice. Weight loss can improve many aspects of health, but the immune system may not recover as quickly. Obesity can leave behind long-lasting changes in the bone marrow, where immune cells are formed, potentially weakening the body’s ability to respond to cancer even after excess weight is lost.

New experiments in mice suggest that a dietary supplement derived from yeast may help undo part of that damage. The supplement contains yeast beta-glucan, a naturally occurring compound already used in commercial food products. When obese mice consumed it, stem cells in their bone marrow were reprogrammed to produce immune cells with stronger anti-tumor activity.

The effect involved innate immunity, the body’s rapid, broad defense system and an important first line of protection against abnormal cells. Researchers from Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin tested the resulting immune responses against colorectal, skin, and breast cancer cells. The findings do not establish that yeast beta-glucan can prevent or treat cancer in people, since the study was conducted in mice.

They do, however, reveal a potentially important biological pathway and raise the possibility that a widely available dietary compound could one day help restore immune functions disrupted by obesity. The study appeared in Cell Reports and was led by Frederick Sheedy, Associate Professor in Immunology in Trinity’s School of Biochemistry and Immunology, and Helen Roche, Professor in Nutrigenomics at the UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science and Director of the UCD Conway Institute. A supplement retrains immune development The central question was whether a supplement taken through food could produce lasting changes in the immune system rather than briefly stimulating cells that were already mature.

To investigate that possibility, the researchers focused on the bone marrow, where stem cells generate many of the body’s immune cells. Dr Anna Ledwith, postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Roche’s group and first