Brief
Ketogenic diet (KD) has been proposed as coadjuvant therapy in the treatment of brain tumours. Preliminary data collected in our lab indicates that KD induces substantial changes in the immune system in animals bearing brain tumours. Microglia are brain-resident immune cells that account for around 30% of brain tumour mass and play a major role in controlling tumour progression by adopting a protumour or antitumour phenotype. We are then interested in understating the metabolic and molecular determinants of microglia polarisation and how these can be modulated by KD. I will report some initial findings that indicate that microglia adapt to fluctuations in the metabolic microenvironment and that changes in nutrient availability modulate microglia polarisation.