Nutrient Fund in Beef and Dairy Improves Immune Response to Cancer: Study
Medical Xpress / University of Chicago / Nature | Nov. 22, 2023 | Jing Chen et al.

Trans-vaccenic acid (TVA), a long-chain fatty acid found in meat and dairy products from grazing animals such as cows and sheep, improves the ability of CD8+ T cells to infiltrate tumors and kill cancer cells, according to a study.

The study also shows that patients with higher levels of TVA circulating in the blood responded better to immunotherapy, suggesting that it could have potential as a nutritional supplement to complement clinical treatments for cancer.

For the new study, Hao Fan, Ph.D. and Siyuan Xia, Ph.D., started with a database of around 700 known metabolites.

They screened the compounds in this new library for their ability to influence anti-tumor immunity by activating CD8+ T cells, a group of immune cells critical for killing cancerous or virally-infected cells.

After the scientists evaluated the top six candidates in both human and mouse cells, they saw that TVA performed the best. TVA is the most abundant trans fatty acid present in human milk, but the body cannot produce it on its own.

Feeding mice a diet enriched with TVA significantly reduced the tumor growth potential of melanoma and colon cancer cells compared to mice fed a control diet. The TVA diet also enhanced the ability of CD8+ T cells to infiltrate tumors.

The team also performed a series of molecular and genetic analyses.

Finally, the team worked to analyze blood samples taken from patients undergoing CAR-T cell immunotherapy treatment for lymphoma.

They saw that patients with higher levels of TVA tended to respond to treatment better than those with lower levels. They also tested cell lines from leukemia and saw that TVA enhanced the ability of an immunotherapy drug to kill leukemia cells.

The study suggests that TVA could be used as a dietary supplement to help various T cell-based cancer treatments.

Cheeseburger Is Paradise!