Common "Sugar Substitutes" are not Safe and have "Unexpected Negative Effects" on the Immune System

Posted on 17 August, 2023 by lifeasible

Sucralose is an artificial sweetener that is approximately 600 times sweeter than sugar and is commonly used in beverages and foods. Although recent studies have shown that sucralose can affect human health by influencing the microbiota, like many other artificial sweeteners, the effects of sucralose on humans are not fully understood.     

Scientists at the Francis Crick Institute found that high intake of sucralose (a common artificial sweetener) reduced the activity of T cells in mice, an important component of the immune system. While sucralose is harmless when consumed in a normal diet, these findings may lead to therapeutic uses for patients with autoimmune diseases where high doses of sucralose can help mitigate the harmful effects of overactive T cells.

Sucralose may be used as a therapeutic agent to suppress T-cell responses if similar effects are observed in humans. This could be beneficial for people with autoimmune diseases who suffer from uncontrolled T-cell activation.

In the study, funded by Cancer Research UK and recently published in Nature, researchers tested the effects of sucralose on the immune system of mice.

Mice were fed sucralose at doses equivalent to the acceptable daily intake recommended by European and US food safety authorities. Importantly, while these doses are achievable, they are not normally achievable by people who simply consume foods or beverages containing the sweetener as part of their normal diet. Mice fed foods containing high doses of sucralose were less able to activate T cells in response to cancer or infection. There was no effect on other types of immune cells. By studying the T cells in more detail, the researchers found that high doses of sucralose affected the release of intracellular calcium, which inhibited T cell function. This study should not be a wake-up call for those who want to ensure they have a healthy immune system or recover from disease, as humans consuming normal or even moderate levels of sucralose would not be exposed to the levels reached in this study. Instead, the researchers hope this finding could lead to a new approach to treating patients with higher doses of sucralose, building on the observation that when mice with T-cell-mediated autoimmune diseases are given a high-dose sucralose diet, this helps mitigate the harmful effects of overactive T cells.

Karen Vousden, senior author and lead group leader at Crick Hospital, said, "We hope to piece together a bigger picture of the effects of diet on health and disease so that one day we can make dietary recommendations that are best for individual patients or find dietary elements that doctors can use. Whether these effects of sucralose in mice can be reproduced in humans will require more research. If these preliminary findings hold true in humans as well, they may one day provide a way to limit some of the harmful effects of autoimmune disease."

Fabio Zani, one of the first authors and a postdoctoral fellow at the Crick Institute, said, "We don't want people to ignore the message that sucralose intake in a normal balanced diet is harmful because the doses we used in mice are difficult to achieve without medical intervention."

"The effects on the immune system that we observed appear to be reversible, and we think that if sucralose can be used to improve diseases such as autoimmunity, especially in combination therapy, this may be worth investigating."

Co-first author Julianna Blagih, a former postdoctoral training fellow at Crick University, explains, "We have shown that sucralose, a commonly used sweetener, is not a completely inert molecule, and we have found unexpected effects on the immune system. We are keen to explore whether there are other cell types or processes that are similarly affected by this sweetener."

Karis Betts, senior health information manager at Cancer Research UK, said, "This study begins to explore new treatment options that high doses of sucralose could potentially be used for patients, but it is still in the early stages. The results of this study do not show that sucralose is harmful to humans, so you don't need to consider changing your diet to avoid it."

Researchers are continuing this work and hope to conduct trials to test whether sucralose has similar effects in humans.