Sleep and the immune system
We all know that we are more prone to illness when we are not getting enough sleep, but scientists have not as yet discovered what sleeplessness exactly does to weaken immunity.
Now researchers at Stanford University have discovered that infecting a fruit fly with Streptococcus pneumoniae or Listeria monocytogenes disrupts the fly’s “sleep”, otherwise known as its circadian rhythm. Conversely, flies whose mutated genes caused them to have disrupted circadian rhythms were also more susceptible to the infection.
“The cool thing is that many of the clock genes are conserved between flies and vertebrates…†says David Schneider, PhD, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford. “As usual, it doesn’t work in exactly the same way, but what the fly does is let us find genes that are involved in the process, and then go figure out exactly how they are rewired to work in the human. The fly is really good for prospecting.â€
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