A research group led by Kazuhiro Suzuki, a specially appointed associate professor at the Immunology Frontier Research Center, Osaka University, has elucidated the mechanism by which sympathetic nerves produce diurnal fluctuations in the immune response *.By grasping the diurnal variation of the immune response and inoculating the vaccine during the time when the immune response is strong, it is possible to maximize the preventive effect.
The biological reaction from the recognition of the antigen that causes immunity to the establishment of immunity is called the "immune response".So far, the research group has discovered a mechanism by which the sympathetic nerve controls the pharmacokinetics of lymphocytes, but it was unclear what role this mechanism plays in the immune response.
There is a diurnal variation in sympathetic activity that increases during the time of day when physical activity increases and decreases during the time when physical activity decreases. In the case of humans, daytime and nocturnal activity. Mice of sex peak at night.
Here, we measured the number of lymphocytes in the lymph nodes of mice and found that they increased at night, consistent with changes in sympathetic nerve activity.Furthermore, it was found that the cause of the increase in the number of lymphocytes was that the increased activity of the sympathetic nerve prevented the lymphocytes from escaping from the lymph nodes.
Next, when mice were vaccinated at night when sympathetic nerve activity increased, a stronger immune response occurred than during the day, and a high vaccine effect was obtained.From these results, it was clarified that the mechanism by which the sympathetic nerve controls the pharmacokinetics of lymphocytes produces diurnal fluctuations in the immune response.
Currently, the problem of the preventive effect of vaccines on infectious diseases is that there are large individual differences. If vaccinated in the morning), it is expected that a higher and more stable effect will be obtained.
