Hotter bodies fight infections and tumors better -- researchers show how

[Guest Nicole]

The hotter our body temperature, the more our bodies speed up a key defense system that fights against tumors, wounds or infections

Date:

May 21, 2018

Source:

University of Warwick

Summary:

The hotter our body temperature, the more our bodies speed up a key defense system that fights against tumors, wounds or infections, new research has found.

The hotter our body temperature, the more our bodies speed up a key defence system that fights against tumours, wounds or infections, new research by a multidisciplinary team of mathematicians and biologists from the Universities of Warwick and Manchester has found.

The researchers have demonstrated that small rises in temperature (such as during a fever) speed up the speed of a cellular 'clock' that controls the response to infections -- and this new understanding could lead to more effective and fast-working drugs which target a key protein involved in this process.

Biologists found that inflammatory signals activate 'Nuclear Factor kappa B' (NF-κB) proteins to start a 'clock' ticking, in which NF-κB proteins move backwards and forwards into and out of the cell nucleus, where they switch genes on and off.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180521095606.htm