Скачать или смотреть Can just seeing someone sick be enough to trigger your immune system?

This paper was published in Nature neuroscience so I do want to start by saying I’m not a neuroscientist, but what I do know is the immune system and the increasing understanding of the neuroimmune axis (should also probably throw endocrine in there, cue HPA axis). This study (🔗 below) tried to explore was a question that has not been published yet to my knowledge : does this axis (the brain and immune system) fire up in anticipation of a sickness, before you’ve even caught any bug?

Given its the immediate immune response , it makes sense the authors looked at innate immune cells which are your first to kick in immediately.
When looking at this paper, they specifically noticed shifts in Innate lymphoid cells, like their activation and their numbers, that they claim is comparable to another cohort who received a flu shot. The flu shot cohort was included to test the immune response effects against a “real” bug coming in (not just virtual!). The authors fairly point out that this is just one cell type, one flu shot captured at this moment, and no one’s ever looked at a model like this before ! We shouldn’t really extrapolate further, but, what I think is fair is that there may indeed be a mobilisation of these immune cells, and perhaps not surprisingly the brain, and signalling through hormones could be behind this, in anticipation of a potential threat. And not just any generic threat, but that of a virtual infection threat.
And could it just be due to being grossed out? Being disgusted also triggers avoidance strategies, but the authors seem to have looked at this too and it seems the answer, according to this paper, is no.

Immunology and VR 😍 idk if I should be excited or scared 🤣

Your immunologist

🔗PMID: 40721674