Researchers at the Van Andel Institute have discovered a significant finding about glucose, a sugar commonly found in the body, and its potent role in enhancing the ability of T cells, a type of immune cell, to combat cancer. On September 2, 2025, the work was released in the esteemed journal Cell Metabolism.
T cells play a crucial role in protecting the immune system, according to a paper published on Monday by Drug Target Review. They locate and eliminate cancerous cells.
Previously, researchers thought that T cells primarily used glucose as an energy source to perform their tasks. But according to this new study, glucose does much more; it serves as a building block for crucial chemicals that enhance T cells' capacity to communicate and eradicate malignancy.
"We knew that T cells need access to glucose to function, but we didn't know exactly why," says Dr. Joseph Longo, the study's first author. Our research demonstrates that T cells use glucose to create big molecules known as glycosphingolipids, or GSLs, which are essential for their development and function. Previously, it was believed that glucose was only used as fuel.
GSLs are unique sugar-fat molecules that aid in the formation of lipid rafts, which are structures seen on the surface of T cells.
These rafts act as command centers, arranging the proteins that tell T lymphocytes to assault tumor cells. These signals deteriorate in the absence of sufficient GSLs, which reduces T cells' ability to eradicate malignancy.
The study's main author, Dr. Russell Jones, Ph.D., continues: "Nutrients are used by both cancer cells and T cells to fulfill their distinct demands. We can better assist T cells' innate ability to combat cancer if we understand how glucose specifically benefits them. We may also be able to create medicines that make cancer cells more susceptible.
This discovery is important because it advances our knowledge of immune cell metabolism and suggests novel approaches to enhance immunotherapies—treatments that strengthen the immune system to more successfully combat cancer.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health funded the work, which raises the prospect of more intelligent cancer therapies that maximize T cells' use of resources like glucose in the tumor environment.
