Hi,
I came across a very interesting poster at the recent ASCO meeting in Chicago. One poster looked at the gut and if there was any association between response to immune checkpoint therapy and what was found in the gut. The poster had the title:
Metagenomic shotgun sequencing to identify specific human gut microbes associated with immune checkpoint therapy efficacy in melanoma patients
And I have put it in this dropbox folder: https://www.dropbox.com/s/srrbmd5s5munkn9/Metagenomic%20shotgun%20sequen....
One of the most interesting things the researchers found was that anacardic acid seemed to be associated with immunotherapy response. And anacardic acid which is apparently found in cashew nuts. During the discussion about the poster, the lead author mentioned that all 15/15 cashew nut eaters in their sample had responded to immunotherapy. Among patients who did not eat cashews, the response rate was around 50%. A sound clip of the discusion can be found here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wqwvll784pw5f3v/Panel%20Discussion%20on%20Gut%...
I am wondering if you have any thoughts on this. Is this in line with your own thinking on omega 3 and omega 6?
Any thoughts you have on this would be very intereting to hear.
Kind regards,
Lars
It's very encouraging to see research examining the interactions between the immune system, microbes and diet. Hopefully as our knowledge broadens, medical treatment will become more effective when all aspects are taken into consideration.
We're not familiar with anacardic acid, but from a brief search, it's not an essential fatty acid like omega 3 or 6, that gets incorporated into cells. Anacardic acid is also noted to cause allergic reactions, so it seems like it could be a compound that stimulates the immune system. To us, it seems like anacardic acid is more of a signaling molecule, along the lines of PSK/PSP (from Coriolus versicolor, a mushroom), which is an immune stimulant and used for cancer treatment.