Yeast beta-glucan boosts cancer immunity in mice — SkimNews
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- Trinity College Dublin researchers, working with University College Dublin colleagues, found that yeast beta-glucan given orally — rather than by injection — reprograms bone marrow stem cells to produce 'trained immunity' against cancer cells in mice.
- The Cell Reports study, led by Frederick Sheedy of Trinity and Helen Roche of UCD with Anna Ledwith as first author, tested obese mice on high-fat diets for 4-12 weeks before exposure to colorectal, skin, and breast cancer cells.
- Yeast beta-glucan reversed immune memory defects that persisted even after the mice lost weight, a finding Roche described as addressing a 'major unmet clinical challenge.'
- Wellmune, the specific product from Kerry Group, is already sold as a food-grade dietary supplement, which the researchers flagged as enabling rapid human clinical trials.
- Previous research achieving trained immunity required beta-glucan injections; the Trinity-UCD team says this is the first demonstration that dietary consumption alone is sufficient to trigger the effect.
- The Trinity-UCD team said the findings support future human trials in people with obesity, chronic infections, and other immunocompromised populations, potentially alongside chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
Why it matters: For people with obesity-linked immune dysfunction, a commercially available supplement (Wellmune) reversed persistent immune defects in mice even after weight loss — a finding researchers frame as a 'major unmet clinical challenge' now addressed. The food-grade product status, the team notes, removes a manufacturing barrier for clinical trials.
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