Periodic Reporting for period 4 - CMIL (Crosstalk of Metabolism and Inflammation)
Berichtszeitraum: 2020-10-01 bis 2021-09-30
Further to investigating infection-associated changes in the liver, we became interested into systemic immunometabolic changes and took a particular focus on adipose and muscle tissue. In diseases such as cancer, chronic inflammation and infection, wide-spread metabolic and inflammatory alterations are found and associated with the devastating disease cachexia. This is manifested as body weight loss, reduction of fat and lean body mass, lack of appetite, lethargy amongst other symptoms, which cannot be reversed by nutritional interventions. Currently, there’s an incomplete understanding of the underlying mechanisms and standard therapies are lacking. We uncovered a previously unrecognized role by our T cell responses mediate cachexia during viral infection and established a novel model to study infection-associated cachexia (Baazim et al. 2019, DOI: 10.1038/s41590-019-0397-y). We discussed its implication and broader context of how the field of immunology can both deliver and benefit from studying this important disease of cachexia in a review (Baazim et al. 2021, DOI: 10.1038/s41577-021-00624-w).