Salty Diet Helps Gut Bugs Fight Cancer in Mice

Good news! Out of the window with those low salt/sodium diets! :-)

Cancer is history!

From the abstract: 

"... Here, we report that HSD [high salt diet] induces natural killer (NK) cell–mediated tumor immunity by inhibiting PD-1 expression while enhancing IFNγ and serum hippurate. Salt enhanced tumor immunity when combined with a suboptimal dose of anti-PD1 antibody. While HSD-induced tumor immunity was blunted upon gut microbiota depletion, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) from HSD mice restored the tumor immunity associated with NK cell functions. HSD increased the abundance of Bifidobacterium and caused increased gut permeability leading to intratumor localization of Bifidobacterium, which enhanced NK cell functions and tumor regression.
Intratumoral injections of Bifidobacterium activated NK cells, which inhibited tumor growth. These results indicate that HSD modulates gut microbiome that induces NK cell–dependent tumor immunity with a potential translational perspective."

Salty Diet Helps Gut Bugs Fight Cancer in Mice: Study | The Scientist Magazine® A high-salt diet suppressed the growth of tumors in a mouse model of melanoma, apparently because of an interplay between the gut microbiome and natural killer cells.

High-salt diet mediates interplay between NK cells and gut microbiota to induce potent tumor immunity