Fasting Supercharges the Cancer-Killing Properties of Immune Cells
June 17, 2024 | Source: NEW ATLAS | by Paul McClure
Fasting for 24 hours twice a week boosts the cancer-fighting abilities of specific immune cells called natural killer cells, according to a new study. The findings open up a number of options for supplementing cancer treatment in the future.
Things that help the body fight cancer are good, especially if they’re easy to implement and don’t require a doctor’s prescription. In a recent study, researchers from the Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center in New York investigated how fasting boosts the immune system’s cancer-fighting abilities.
“Tumors are very hungry,” said Joseph Sun, an immunologist and the study’s co-corresponding author. “They take up essential nutrients, creating a hostile environment often rich in lipids that are detrimental to most immune cells. What we show here is that fasting reprograms these natural killer cells to better survive in this suppressive environment.”
Natural killer (NK) cells are white blood cells that live up to their name, destroying other cells infected with viruses and cancer cells. Although their primary job is to kill invaders, NK cells also communicate with other immune cells, releasing proteins called cytokines to signal them to attack harmful cells. The more NK cells there are invading a cancer tumor, the better the patient’s prognosis.
The researchers fasted mice with cancer for 24 hours twice a week; they could eat freely between fasts. They found that fasting had a profound effect on the animal’s NK cells. As happens in humans who fast, the mice’s glucose levels fell, and free fatty acids, which can be used as an alternative energy source when other nutrients are low, rose. NK cells in the mice’s spleen were ‘reprogrammed’ as a result.