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Removal of circadian genes improves antibacterial activity in mice

Published.

2023-02-23 13:20

A British research team published a paper in the new issue of the Journal of the National Academy of Sciences. After removing a key gene related to the regulation of the circadian clock in experimental mice, the phagocytic macrophages became stronger and improved. The ability of mice to resist bacterial pneumonia.
The circadian clock is a physiological mechanism in most organisms that regulates life activities. For example, people have circadian sleep, and eating behaviors at different time periods are all due to the influence of the circadian clock.
Researchers from the University of Manchester and the University of Oxford said that they had previously found that laboratory mice infected with pneumococcus during the day were not as good as those infected at night. In a new experiment, they removed a gene in mice called BMAL1, which is a key gene that regulates the biological clock.
It was found that removing the circadian clock gene triggered a series of changes that eventually made the macrophages in mice more active. Macrophages are able to engulf and destroy more bacteria, which increases the ability of mice to resist bacterial pneumonia.
Dr. Gareth Kitchen of the University of Manchester said that multidrug-resistant bacteria is one of the major challenges facing the medical community at present, so this new discovery may make BMAL1 a target for new drugs in the future and better help patients combat Various bacterial infections. Based on the new findings, the team is further studying how to make immune cells play a greater role in the treatment of various bacterial infections.

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