Acute stress may make it hard to fight against COVID-19

Acute Stress is likely to cause impairment of the human body's ability to battle against infections. It may affect the immune system's fight against COVID-19. According to a recent study on mice, the strength of the immune system is directly related to acute stress. The research published in the journal Nature is the first-ever report to successfully display how certain regions of the human brain control the body's immune response when under acute stress and affected by influenza or COVID-19. It was found that because of acute stress, the neurons from the paraventricular hypothalamus (a part of the human brain), in an instant, trigger the leukocytes or the white blood cells to migrate in a large scale from the lymph nodes to the bone marrow and blood. This results in the depletion of immune response to viruses like COVID-19, influenza, etc., and decreased chances of the body's resistance to fight against infection.

The Research on Mice

Immune systems of relaxed and stressed mice were analysed. Researchers desired to know how stress induces the migration of immune cells in the body. Tools like chemogenetics and optogenetics were used for the observations. The changes in the mice models started to appear within a few minutes.


Q. What were the observations of the research?

Mice with acute stress displayed significant variations in their immune system as contrasted to the other group.

The relaxed mice group was able to fight against and quickly recover from the infections like COVID-19 and influenza.

The stressed mice got sicker, and their immunity levels dropped; they were likely to die from the virus.

Q. How are the researchers planning to find ways to improve immunity?

It is essential to find the link between the effect of stress on leukocytes and the negative effect of stress which impacts the immune system's decreased chances of fighting against viruses.

The continued migration of white blood cells into the blood may also cause implications for cardiovascular health.