NEW YORK — A
simple dietary supplement in ketogenic diet can boost ‘CAR T’ cell function — a
personalised treatment that reprogrammes patients’ own immune cells to kill
cancer, according to a new study.
While the approach needs to be assessed in clinical trials,
the early research, hints at a potentially cost-effective strategy to improve
CAR T cell function and cancer-fighting abilities, according to a study from
researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of
Pennsylvania and Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center in the US.
“Thousands of
patients with blood cancers have been successfully treated with CAR T cell
therapy, but it still doesn’t work for everyone,” said co-lead author Shan Liu,
a postdoctoral fellow.
Liu co-led the study with Puneeth Guruprasad, a medical
student in the Perelman School of Medicine.
The research team tested the effect of several different
diets, including ketogenic, high-fibre, high-fat, high-protein, high
cholesterol, and a control diet, on CAR T cell’s tumour-fighting capabilities
using a mouse model of diffuse-large B-cell lymphoma.
They found improved tumour control and survival in the mice
receiving a ketogenic diet compared to all other diets.
In subsequent studies, they found higher levels of
beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), a metabolite produced by the liver in response to a
ketogenic diet, was a key mediator of this effect.
“Our theory is that
CAR T cells prefer BHB as a fuel source rather than standard sugars in our
body, such as glucose,” Guruprasad said. “So, increasing the levels of BHB in
the body gives the CAR T cells more power to take out the cancer cells.”
The theory that BHB supplementation could improve response
to CAR T cell therapy is being tested in a Phase I clinical trial at Penn
Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center.
“We’re talking about
an intervention that is relatively cheap and has low toxicity potential,” said
Maayan Levy, PhD, an assistant professor of Microbiology.
“If the clinical
trial data pans out, I’m excited to think about how a fairly simple approach
like this could be combined with dietary interventions or other, more traditional
approaches, to enhance the anti-cancer effect,” Levy added.
