Magnesium may prime the immune system to fight cancer and infections

However, he questioned whether serum magnesium concentration, which scientists often use to measure an individual’s status with regard to the mineral, is a reliable marker.He pointed out that in serum, most magnesium is bound to the protein albumin and, therefore, not as freely available for the body as another form known as blood ionized magnesium.“How extracellular magnesium affects immunity is an exciting and promising area of science,” he told MNT.“However, the research community needs to be concurrently assessing whole blood ionized magnesium (not common in research) to fully understand how diet [or] supplements can influence status,” he added.Dr. Hess and his colleagues are now looking at ways to boost the concentration of magnesium in the tumors of patients.He said that they aim to test whether they can use tiny parcels of fat — either lipid nanoparticles or liposomes — filled with magnesium and coated with antibodies to improve the efficacy of immune therapy.“In our paper, we show that this is a successful strategy in mice,” he added.They will also test whether giving magnesium supplements — either in pills or injections — to individuals with cancer can improve outcomes with two immune therapies: CAR T cell and PD1/PDL1 therapies.“We have clinical trials in an advanced planning stage,” he said.Their newly published study analyzed data on serum magnesium levels from previous clinical trials, so it was only able to establish an association rather than a causal link between magnesium and treatment outcomes.