A cold nose might be good for
dogs, but for you and me coming
maybe not so much.
New research adjusts cold
weather may affect an immune
response, making us more
susceptible to obits, flu and
other respiratory infections.
A doctor and sinus specialist in
Boston teaches at the Harvard
medical school and is the senior
author of the study.
Have I got this right?
When it comes to fighting
viruses, there is more going on
not under our noses but in our
noses than previously
understood?
>> That is right.
The study found that inside the
front of our noses, when we are
exposed to the virus, there is a
war going on.
Our nose detect the presence of
a virus, the cells release
vesicles, and they have several
functions.
They bind to the virus, they mop
up the virus before it has a
chance to infect ourselves.
Not only that, they directly
kill the virus when they bind to
it.
The viruses don't have a chance
to them act cells because of the
bubbles.
John: How does it change when it
gets cold?
>> We found when the front of
the nose is exposed to cold, we
took healthy volunteers and
measured the front of their nose
and at about 40 degrees
fahrenheit, we found at the
fronts the temperature drops by
five degrees celsius and in
effect, just the modest drop in
temperature decreases these
immune functions by about half.
That turns lights to about twice
as much virus able to get into
the cells and replicate just
after exposure to the small drop
in air temperature.
John: Is there a threshold where
this gets to be a problem?
>> We only measured the one
drop.
We picked this number because
this is a typical winter in
Boston.
We found we could quantify and
relate degree of temperature
drop to specific changes that
were decreases in our ability to
fight these viruses.
This is the first time we
discovered a quantitative
mechanism for how the cold
impacts our nasal immunity and
ability to fight off viruses.
John: Does this change the
thinking of why winter is cold
and flu season?
>> It does.
There has been a lot of
speculation as to why we see
this constant pattern
year-over-year, we see higher
rates of respiratory infections.
People used to say maybe people
are gathering more indoors, but
we all know we are indoors all
year round and other studies
have looked at this where people
get together during sports
events and they do not see these
same types of effects.
We wanted to look at an actual
mechanism we can onto five and
this changes the way we look at
this.
We know that the nose has an
important role in not only
protecting us from respiratory
viruses but also how the
protection is impaired when we
are exposed to modest changes in
temperature.
John: Are there implications for
how doctors treat colds and flu?
>> The type of affect is what we
call the innate immune system.
The part of our immune system
that immediately protects us
within minutes to hours of being
exposed.
This tells us that things like
masking are still very
important, because not only does
this prevent us from inhaling
the virus, we also think in the
cold months, maybe mast
maintained the question of warm
air and prevent this reduction
in temperature.
This also tells us as potential
preventative therapies in the
future that we could leverage
some discoveries to full the
nose into thinking a virus is
resident and up regulate this
immune response and may be
prevent us from getting
infected.
John: Regardless of the
temperature.
>> Exactly.