Why We Get Sick: Immune-mediated Modulation of Systemic Metabolism in Context of Disease

Host

Klaas van Gisbergen, PhD, Tissue Immunity Lab

Venue

Seminar room

Abstract

When we get sick, we feel miserable. We get a temperature, lose appetite, and become lethargic. Whereas we experience this behavior as a pathology, in fact it comprises a carefully regulated set of metabolic adaptations, mediated by the immune system, with the purpose to better fight infection. Surprisingly, much is still unclear about how this so called 'sickness metabolism' is regulated and why it is beneficial. Over the last decade, we have investigated how viral infection impacts the availability of nutrients in circulation. We find that infection restricts the availability of glucose and increases levels of lipids in the blood stream. Glucose restriction promotes the systemic responsiveness to viral infection and enhances type 1 interferon responses, whereas lipids promote early B cell activation. Interestingly, our findings suggest that metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes (T2D) are partially the result of a derailed mechanism aimed at protecting the body from viral infection. Moreover, people with diseases such as T2D fail to accomplish the systemic metabolic adaptations required to optimally fight infection upon pathogen encounter and therefore suffer from more frequent and severe disease. In this presentation I will outline some of the molecular mechanisms of immune-endocrine interactions that underly sickness metabolism in response to viral infection and will explain how it derails in context of metabolic disease. 

Biography

Felix Wensveen is a full professor at the University of Rijeka, faculty of medicine. He obtained his PhD in 2010 at the University of Amsterdam in the field of fundamental CD8 T cell biology. For his postdoctoral education, he moved to the University of Rijeka, where he started his own group in 2015. In Rijeka, he shifted his focus initially to NK cell biology and later to systemic immunometabolism. This field, also known as sickness metabolism, investigates the way in which the immune system alters systemic metabolism following infection and in context of metabolic disease. Currently, his group focuses on sickness metabolism of the liver and the endocrine system.

Register here.
 

About CR Colloquia Series

Champalimaud Research (CR) Colloquia Series is a seminar programme organised by the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown to promote the discussion about the most interesting and significant questions in neuroscience and physiology & cancer with appointed speakers by the CR Community.