A high-fat, low-carb eating plan like the keto diet has its fans, but influenza apparently isn't one of them. Laboratory mice that researchers fed a ketogenic diet were better able to fight the flu virus. On the other hand, mice that ate a high-carbohydrate diet were not as resistant to the virus. This emerges from a new study from Yale University, published on November 15, 2019 in the journal “Science Immunology”.
Keto diet as a countermeasure
Dieketogenic diet, which for humans includes meat, fish, poultry and non-starchy vegetables, activates a subset of T cells in the lungs. Scientists have not previously linked these to the immune system's response to influenza. The researchers report that they can effectively intercept the virus. “This was a completely unexpected discovery.” That's what authors say Akiko Iwasaki, Waldemar von Zedtwitz Professor of Immunobiology and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher.
The research project was initiated by two trainees. One was in Iwasaki's lab and one was in collaboration with co-senior author Visha Deep Dixit. Ryan Molony worked in Iwasaki's lab. There he was able to determine that immune system activators known as inflammasomes can trigger harmful immune system reactions in their host. Emily Goldberg worked in Dixit's lab, which had shown that the keto diet blocked the formation of inflammasomes.
Strengthen immunity
The two wondered whether diet could influence the immune system's response to pathogens such as the flu virus. They showed that mice fed a ketogenic diet and infected with the influenza virus had a higher survival rate than mice fed a normal diet high in carbohydrates. Specifically, the researchers found that the ketogenic diet triggered the release of gamma delta T cells, cells of the immune system that produce mucus in the cell linings of the lungs—while the high-carbohydrate diet did not.
When scientists bred the lab mice without the gene encoding gamma delta T cells, the ketogenic diet provided no protection against the influenza virus. “This study shows that the way the body burns fat to produce ketone bodies from the food we eat can boost the immune system to fight a flu infection,” Dixit said.
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