Molecular Mechanism of Fasting-Mimicking Diet in Inhibiting Colorectal Cancer Progression: Implications for Immune Therapy and Metabolic Regulation

Abstract Recently, fasting-mimicking diet and caloric restriction have been shown to improve antitumor immunity. In this issue of Cancer Research, Zhong and colleagues provide insights into the molecular mechanism of fasting-mimicking diet–mediated metabolic reprogramming in colorectal cancer progression. The authors performed comprehensive mechanistic experiments in mouse models to show that fasting-mimicking diet prevents colorectal cancer progression by lowering intratumoral IgA+ B cells by accelerating fatty acid oxidation to inhibit B-cell IgA class switching. In addition, they found that fatty acid oxidation–dependent acetylation prevents IgA class switching and that IgA+ B cells interfere with the anticancer effects of fasting-mimicking diet in colorectal cancer. Overall, their study establishes that fasting-mimicking diet has the potential to activate anticancer immunity and to induce tumor regression in colorectal cancer. See related article by Zhong et al., p. 3529