Pennsylvania Pennsylvania: Researchers at Penn Medicine's Abramson Cancer Center and the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine have found that a simple dietary supplement
CAR T May offer a new way to enhance cell performance.66th American Society of Hematology (
ASH) Preliminary Research Presented at the Annual Meeting and Exhibition (Abstract 4),
CAR T suggests a potentially cost-effective way to enhance cell function and cancer-fighting abilities, although the strategy must be evaluated in clinical trials.

CAR T Cell therapy is a personalized treatment approach, pioneered at Penn Medicine, that reprograms patients' own immune cells to kill their cancer. Co-lead author Shan Liu, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow who
ASH presented the study in, said, “Thousands of blood cancer patients
CAR T have been successfully treated with cell therapy, but it still doesn't work for everyone.” “We
CAR T Took a different approach to improving cell therapy, targeting T cells through diet rather than further genetic engineering.”

Liu led the study along with Punit Guruprasad, PhD, who earned his PhD at Penn and is now a medical student at the Perelman School of Medicine. Co-senior authors Marco Ruela, MD, assistant professor of hematology-oncology, a researcher in the Center for Cellular Immunotherapy and scientific director of Penn Medicine's Lymphoma Program; and worked under the guidance of Maayan Levy, PhD, assistant professor of microbiology.

First, the research team tested the tumor-fighting abilities of CAR T cells using a mouse model of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma with several different diets, including a ketogenic, high-fiber, high-fat, high-protein, high-cholesterol, and a control diet. -Tested the effects of different diets. In subsequent studies, they found that high levels of beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), a metabolite produced by the liver in response to the ketogenic diet, was a major mediator of this effect.