High blood sugar quietly supercharges the immune cells that fight tumours — and scientists may be able to copy it

Doctors have long noticed a puzzle: people with type 1 diabetes develop certain cancers — melanoma, breast and colon — less often than expected. A study published in The Journal of Immunology, led by Dr Anamika Bose of India's National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, offers an explanation. In mice, high blood sugar reprogrammed T cells — the immune system's hunter cells — switching on a signaling pathway (the IGF1–IGF1R axis) that made them more numerous and far better at controlling tumours; when insulin normalised the blood sugar, the advantage vanished. The same pathway was also turned up in immune cells from human blood with high blood sugar. Nobody is suggesting high blood sugar is healthy — but if its effect on T cells can be mimicked safely in a treatment, it could point to a new family of cancer immunotherapies. 'Our findings open several research avenues,' Bose said.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation