MedicalXPress — 19 January 2022
The level of magnesium in the blood is an important factor in the immune system’s ability to tackle pathogens and cancer cells. Researchers from The University of Basel and University Hospital Basel have reported that T cells need a sufficient quantity of magnesium in order to operate efficiently. Their findings, published in the journal Cell, may have important implications for cancer patients.
Magnesium deficiency is associated with a variety of diseases, including infections and cancer. Previous studies showed that cancerous growths spread faster in the bodies of mice when the animals received a low-magnesium diet. Now, researchers led by Professor Christoph Hess discovered that T cells can eliminate abnormal or infected cells efficiently only in a magnesium-rich environment. Specifically, magnesium is important for the function of a T cell surface protein called LFA-1, which acts as a docking site playing a key role in the activation of T cells.
“In the inactive state this docking site is in a bent conformation and thus cannot efficiently bind to infected or abnormal cells,” Professor Hess explains. “This is where magnesium comes into play. If magnesium is present in sufficient quantities in the vicinity of the T cells, it binds to LFA-1 and ensures that it remains in an extended — and therefore active — position.” In experimental models, the researchers showed that the immune response of T cells against cancer cells was strengthened by an increase in the local magnesium concentration in tumors. Using data from previously completed studies of cancer patients, they were also able to show that immunotherapies were less effective in patients with insufficient levels of magnesium in their blood.