The study found that insulin can enhance the body's immune system function to help protect against body infections.

Copyright © iCell Bioscience Inc, Shanghai 2018-2019

Recently, scientists from the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute discovered through research that insulin can enhance the body's immune system to help protect against infection.

The researchers identified a specific insulin signaling pathway that, once activated, accelerates the T cell response in the immune system, rapidly cleavage and secretes cytokines to activate the rest of the body's immune system, a fast and efficient the immune response protects the body against disease and fatal infections by destroying infected cells or microorganisms, and a false or ineffective immune response can cause dysfunction or multiple diseases in the immune system.

Researchers have identified one of the most prevalent hormones in the body's metabolism, especially the insulin signaling pathway, which can serve as a novel driver of immune system function; in this study, researchers on immune cells (mainly T cells) The role of the signal pathway in the analysis has been analyzed, providing new clues and ideas for a better understanding of how to effectively regulate the function of the body's immune system.

Although in the past many years, scientists have conducted in-depth research on the role of insulin in liver, muscle and adipose tissue to understand the regulation mechanism of the body's blood sugar and how the body metabolizes sugar to convert it into energy, but the current researchers It is not clear how insulin affects the function of the body's immune system.

The researchers have not yet clarified the link between insulin and the body's immune system, but it is interesting to note that the researchers found that immune cells are also regulated by insulin signaling; recommendations for testing insulin's association with the body's immune system come from researchers. In some observational studies, people with type 2 diabetes or obesity, or those at higher risk for type 2 diabetes, often have poorer or tolerable insulin responses.

In previous studies, it was found that immune cells in abdominal fat can promote the release of pro-inflammatory chemicals, which makes the body less sensitive to insulin. Obesity is directly related to systemic insulin resistance, and both the obese and insulin-tolerant individuals and the mouse's body have weaker immune responses and their susceptibility to severe infectious diseases increases.

The researchers believe that there may be a link between persistence and chronic inflammation, immune dysfunction, and insulin resistance, which ultimately leads to a cessation of T cell response and impaired function. The aim of this study was to elucidate the mechanism by which insulin regulates T cell function and the cause of T cell cessation of insulin response. The researchers chose T cells because they played a key role in the body's self-defense against infection.

The researchers then developed genetically engineered mice that carried T cells that did not contain insulin receptors, and used the mice to mimic insulin resistance. The researchers then observed T in the mouse body under different stress conditions. Changes in cells, such as H1N1 virus infection; when encountering foreign invaders, T cells need more signals to enhance their activation ability, insulin receptors or signaling molecules are like the secondary propulsion of the body's immune system The same, it ensures that the body is effective against infection.

Without the extra driving force of the insulin receptor to help reactivate T cells to produce an effective immune response, T cells may not be able to effectively eliminate the infection of the body by influenza viruses such as H1N1. T cells are at the heart of many diseases. If researchers can understand the mechanism of action of T cells at the cellular level, they may have the opportunity to find new pathways to develop new disease therapies.

Finally, the researchers said that in the future, I hope to use the insulin signaling pathway to enhance the body's immune response to develop new vaccines, or to reduce the body's immune response to treat a variety of inflammatory diseases, such as arthritis, ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease and so on.