T-cell Breakthrough with Diabetes Drug May Revolutionize Cancer Treatments

Researchers have discovered that a widely used antidiabetic drug can boost the immune system and increase the potency of vaccines and cancer treatments.

The discovery was made by Dr. Russell Jones, an assistant professor at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) Goodman Cancer Center and the department of physiology, faculty of medicine, Yongwon Choi, Ph.D., professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, and postdoctoral fellow Erika Pearce, Ph.D., from the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA, USA). They discovered that the widely prescribed diabetes treatment metformin increases the efficiency of the immune system's T-cells, which then makes cancer and virus-fighting vaccines more effective. The study's findings were published June 3, 2009, in the journal Nature.

The specialized white blood cells of the human immune system known as T-cells remember pathogens they have encountered from previous infections or vaccinations, enabling them to fight subsequent infections much faster. This "immunologic memory” has been the subject of concentrated study for many years, but until now the underlying cellular mechanisms behind it were not well understood. Now, reported the researchers, they can use diabetic therapies to modify T-cell response and increase the immune system's response to infections and cancer alike.

"Many genes involved in diabetes regulation also play a role in cancer progression,” Dr. Jones explained. "There is also a significant body of data suggesting that diabetics are more prone to certain cancers. However, our study is the first to suggest that by targeting the same metabolic pathways that play a role in diabetes, you can alter how well your immune system functions.”

"We serendipitously discovered that the metabolizing, or burning, of fatty acids by T-cells following the peak of infection is critical to establishing immunological memory,” Dr. Pearce added. "We used metformin, which is known to operate on fatty-acid metabolism, to enhance this process, and have shown experimentally in mice that metformin increases T-cell memory as well as the ensuing protective immunity of an experimental anticancer vaccine.”

Few scientists discuss cancer and diabetes in the same breath. However, recent developments have uncovered common links between cancer and diabetes, in particular, how metabolic pathways, the basic chemical reactions that happen in our cells, are controlled in these diseases. The recent findings suggest a new link between the metabolic pathways deregulated in cancer and diabetes and their role in immune cell function. The study's findings suggest that common diabetic therapies that alter cellular metabolism may enhance T-cell memory, providing a boost to the immune system. This could lead to innovative strategies for vaccine and anticancer therapies.

"Our findings were unanticipated, but are potentially extremely important and could revolutionize current strategies for both therapeutic and protective vaccines,” Dr. Choi said.

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