SCI Immunol: ketogenic diet helps fight influenza

November 20, 2019 / BIOON / -- recently, ketogenic diet (high-fat, low-carbon water diet) is very popular among the general public, but at the same time, it makes the existence of influenza virus "intimidate" A new study published by Yale University on November 15 in the journal Science immunology shows that mice fed a ketogenic diet are more resistant to influenza virus than those fed a carbohydrate rich diet Ketogenic diets - including meat, fish, poultry and non starch vegetables - activate T-cell subsets in the lungs, thereby increasing the production of mucus in respiratory cells, a mechanism that researchers report can effectively capture viruses "It's completely unexpected," said Akiko Iwasaki, CO senior author of Howard Hughes Medical Institute (image source: www Pixabay Com) the research project was jointly completed by visha deep dixitw and Ryan Molony The authors found that immune system activators, known as inflammatory bodies, can cause harmful immune system responses in their hosts This study shows that ketogenic diet can prevent the formation of inflammatory bodies In this regard, the author hopes to know whether diet will affect the immune system's response to pathogens such as influenza virus They showed that mice fed a ketogenic diet and infected with influenza virus had a higher survival rate than mice fed a high carbohydrate normal diet In particular, the researchers found that the ketogenic diet triggers the release of γ - δ T cells, immune system cells that produce mucus in the inner layer of lung cells, whereas the high carbohydrate diet has no such effect When mice were deprived of δ T cells, they could not resist influenza virus by receiving ketogenic diet "This study shows that the way the body burns fat can produce ketones from the food we eat, thus providing immune protection against influenza infection," the authors said aav2026