Researchers uncover promising findings about the role of vitamin B6 in pancreatic cancer

A recent study published in the journal Cancer Discovery highlights the dual role of vitamin B6 in both maintaining health in individuals without pancreatic cancer and its implications when the disease is present.

Vitamin B6, found in chicken, fish, and bananas, supports immune cells like natural killer (NK) cells crucial for combatting cancer and infections. However, in pancreatic cancer, NK cells decline as cancer cells consume B6 for their growth. This competition highlights the significance of B6 in immune function and its role in cancer progression.

“Pancreatic cancer is very difficult to treat, and only 11% of people who are diagnosed survive for five years,” said Kamiya Mehla, Ph.D., associate professor of oncology science in the OU College of Medicine and a researcher with the OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center.

“It’s important that researchers study pancreatic cancer from many different angles in order to develop new treatments. My laboratory is focused on the role of vitamin B6 because we know it boosts the immune system, but we need to understand more about how it affects cancer cells. We hope that our work opens new avenues for developing novel treatments for pancreatic cancer.”

In the study, Mehla found that giving more vitamin B6 doesn’t help the NK cells – the pancreatic cancer cells grew more when they could consume additional nutrients. She studied the actions that cancer cells take to deplete vitamin B6, then devised ways to impede them. She discovered a three-part strategy. Step one involves reducing the expression of a particular gene in order to block the pathway through which the cancer takes up vitamin B6. The second step is to supply more vitamin B6, and the third utilizes a therapy to enhance the function of NK cells, like a tune-up for a car engine. When the strategy was tested in mice, it reduced the amount of pancreatic cancer cells.

“That was encouraging to discover and it is important to know because the immune system needs to be strong in order for other treatments, like chemotherapy, to be effective. Therapy will not work if the immune system is not able to do its part.”said Mehla.

Because pancreatic cancer causes problems throughout the body in its attempt to gain more nutrients, the study was crucial in determining how a shortfall of vitamin B6 affects other organs, particularly the liver, when cancer cells are present and whether a lack of vitamin B6 contributes to the onset of cachexia, a muscle-wasting condition that affects the majority of people with pancreatic cancer.

Reference: Cancer Discovery; https://doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.CD-23-0334