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Circadian rhythms in adaptive immunity and vaccination

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Abstract

Adaptive immunity allows an organism to respond in a specific manner to pathogens and other non-self-agents. Also, cells of the adaptive immune system, such as T and B lymphocytes, can mediate a memory of an encounter with a pathogen, allowing a more efficient response to a future infection. As for other aspects of physiology and of the immune system, the adaptive immune system is regulated by circadian clocks. Consequently, the development, differentiation, and trafficking between tissues of adaptive immune cells have been shown to display daily rhythms. Also, the response of T cells to stimuli (e.g., antigen presentation to T cells by dendritic cells) varies according to a circadian rhythm, due to T cell-intrinsic mechanisms as well as cues from other tissues. The circadian control of adaptive immune response has implications for our understanding of the fight against pathogens as well as auto-immune diseases, but also for vaccination, a preventive measure based on the development of immune memory.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the members of the Cermakian and Labrecque laboratories for helpful discussions.

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (PJT-168847). SKS was supported by an NSERC-CREATE award in Complex Dynamics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Douglas Research Centre, McGill University, 6875 Boulevard LaSalle, Montreal, QC, H4H 1R3, Canada

    Nicolas Cermakian, Sophia K. Stegeman & Kimaya Tekade

  2. Hôpital Maisonneuve Rosemont Research Centre, Département de Médecine and Département de Microbiologie, infectiologie et immunologie, Université de Montréal, QC, H1T 2M4, Montreal, Canada

    Nathalie Labrecque

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Correspondence to Nicolas Cermakian.

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This article is a contribution to the special issue on: Chronoimmunology: from preclinical assessments to clinical applications - Guest Editors: Henrik Oster & David Ray

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Cermakian, N., Stegeman, S.K., Tekade, K. et al. Circadian rhythms in adaptive immunity and vaccination. Semin Immunopathol 44, 193–207 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00281-021-00903-7

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