Prof. Akiko Iwasaki of the Yale School of Medicine (United States) had already discovered that the ketogenic diet, a diet that reduces carbohydrate intake to favor fat intake, reduced inflammation in mice with gout. To continue her research, she investigated whether this diet could also treat inflammation in mice that received the flu virus.
Better survival rate with this diet
For this study, published in the journal Immunology, the researchers fed a group of mice inoculated with the influenza virus either a ketogenic or a conventional diet for 7 days, resulting in the mice on the ketogenic diet losing less weight (a sign of an infection). viral in animals) and had better survival compared to mice given a normal diet.
“Respiratory influenza A virus (AIV) infections are a major source of human morbidity and mortality. Pending a vaccine, new therapeutic approaches are essential for the treatment of influenza diseases” explained the researchers. In mice, the ketogenic diet resulted in an expansion of T cells in the lungs, which improved barrier functions and improved resistance to viruses.
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