Is Immune System Timing Sequence Important?

[Creekside]

None of the immune system tests seem to show significant abnormalities in PWME, but those are static measurements. Is timing sequence of immune signalling important? Do cells respond differently if chemokine x arrives before chemokine y? Computers depend on code sequence, so it's not unreasonable that biological systems do too. I suppose it's important for protein-building too: you have to attach a lysine before you can attach an alanine, or whatever.

I was just wondering whether it might make a difference in how the brain responds to signals from exertion if one signal is delayed wrt another. Maybe one signal says "Ignore subsequent IFN-g molecules for a while." or "Alert! Prepare to make a major response to subsequent IFN-b!".

Just posing the question, since I don't know.

 

[jnmaciuch]

Cytokine “priming” is definitely a well-studied concept within immune cells. The main one that comes to mind is IFN-g causing macrophages to produce higher levels of TNF, IL-1B, etc. with TLR stimulation. Also cytokines exert regulatory effects on each other at the intracellular level, so IL-10 binding to a tissue cell receptor will cause downregulation of many of the downstream mediators that IL-6 exerts its effects through (meaning that depending on the specific context, IL-10 can blunt a subsequent IL-6 response in that tissue cell). So yes, this type of thing definitely happens and there’s a lot of interest in studying it already.