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Influence of circadian clocks on adaptive immunity and vaccination responses.

Nature communications

Authors: Louise Madeleine Ince, Coline Barnoud, Lydia Kay Lutes, Robert Pick, Chen Wang, Flore Sinturel, Chien-Sin Chen, Alba de Juan, Jasmin Weber, Stephan J Holtkamp, Sophia Martina Hergenhan, Jennifer Geddes-McAlister, Stefan Ebner, Paola Fontannaz, Benjamin Meyer, Maria Vono, Stéphane Jemelin, Charna Dibner, Claire-Anne Siegrist, Felix Meissner, Frederik Graw, Christoph Scheiermann

The adaptive immune response is under circadian control, yet, why adaptive immune reactions continue to exhibit circadian changes over long periods of time is unknown. Using a combination of experimental and mathematical modeling approaches, we show here that dendritic cells migrate from the skin to the draining lymph node in a time-of-day-dependent manner, which provides an enhanced likelihood for functional interactions with T cells. Rhythmic expression of TNF in the draining lymph node enhances BMAL1-controlled ICAM-1 expression in high endothelial venules, resulting in lymphocyte infiltration and lymph node expansion. Lymph node cellularity continues to be different for weeks after the initial time-of-day-dependent challenge, which governs the immune response to vaccinations directed against Hepatitis A virus as well as SARS-CoV-2. In this work, we present a mechanistic understanding of the time-of-day dependent development and maintenance of an adaptive immune response, providing a strategy for using time-of-day to optimize vaccination regimes.

© 2023. The Author(s).

PMID: 36717561

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