2024-04-28 13:54:47
Even with vaccination, obese people are almost twice as likely to get the flu as non-obese people. They are also more likely to encounter severe cases of the disease. But why obesity reduces vaccine effectiveness and how to prevent this effect is unclear, says Stacey Schultz-Cherry of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospitals USA.
So she and her colleagues fed 20 mice genetically predisposed to obesity a high-fat diet for four months. Then they vaccinated the now obese rodents against the flu. After two weeks, half of the mice were fed a low-fat diet for a month, after which their weight decreased significantly. The animals were then infected with a lethal dose of influenza virus. All mice died, except for two mice in the low-fat group.
The research team repeated the experiment with a separate group of mice, but this time half of the rodents were fed a low-fat diet for a month before—rather than after—the vaccination. When the researchers infected the animals with the same amount of flu virus, all the animals on the low-fat diet survived — while none of those on the high-fat diet survived.
This suggests that “weight loss may affect the effectiveness of the vaccine, but the timing of weight loss is very important,” says Schultz-Cherry. But further research is needed to determine whether this improvement is due to diet or weight loss, says Jaswinder Sethi of the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom. Only then will we be able to find ways to improve the effectiveness of vaccines in obese people, she says.
“I think we have to be very careful about extrapolating these results to humans,” says Schultz-Cherry. For example, according to her, a month in the life of mice is equivalent to a human year.
Research paskelbtas „Nature Microbiology“.
Let’s call it “New Scientist”.
2024-04-28 13:54:47