Does time of day influence our susceptibility to infection?

Conclusion This novel animal study aimed to establish whether the time of day when a virus is caught affects its spread. The findings do seem to suggest – in mice at least – being infected at the start of the resting period led to greater viral replication than being infected during the active part of the day. The researchers confirmed this by demonstrating that mice without the body clock gene showed a high level of the virus regardless of the time of day they had been infected. Circadian rhythms are biological cycles in the body related to the time of day. They are sometimes referred to as the body clock, or as the body's individual biological timing. The body's cells have their own clocks, which interact with each other and are controlled by this master 24-hour clock in the brain. It is this effect on the cells that the researchers feel is responsible for the differences in viral spread. These findings may cause concern for those with a disrupted daily pattern, such as shift workers. Taking a great leap, you could think, for example, that if night shift workers go out to work and catch a virus, they are catching it at the start of their resting period, so it will replicate more.  But there are a number of cautions to this thinking: Human cells are not identical to those in mice, so we don't know that the findings seen in this research directly apply to humans. Even if the processes are similar, the body clock likely shifts in people who regularly work ni...
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