Your Immune System... In Space
 
Getting sick when you're far from home is a drag. You'd give anything to
crawl into your own soft bed and sleep, but you're stuck in a cookie-cutter
hotel room feeling like a sick fish out of water. Well, it could be worse.
 
You could be an astronaut on the way to Mars -- a really long way from
mom's chicken soup.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpFcGIUlg3I
 
Future space travelers will need to stay healthy to perform well for their
own safety and for mission success. So it's important to understand how
extended space travel will affect them.
 
The immune system works unnoticed to protect the body, but even subtle
changes in that all-important system may be linked to the onset of illness.
Factors like radiation, microgravity, stress, and altered sleep cycles
could all affect astronaut immune systems. A new NASA study entitled
`Functional Immune' will investigate the immune system changes that occur
in International Space Station (ISS) crewmembers. Understanding these
immune system changes may help scientists pinpoint the onset of illness,
and suggest monitoring strategies, or treatments, that can boost the immune
system and prevent full-blown infections and diseases here on Earth.
 
Functional Immune builds upon the results of several previous NASA studies
of the immune system, which, according to Johns Hopkins University
Scientist Dr. Mark Shelhamer "tell us there is no place during
spaceflight where we see stabilization of the immune system."
 
In 2014, NASA's Integrated Immune study showed abnormalities can occur in
immune cells in ISS crewmembers' blood during flight. Normally, the immune
system attacks and eliminates virus infected cells. When cell activity is
depressed, the immune system isn't responding to threats as it should. When
cell activity heightens, the immune system reacts excessively, which can
result in illness, increased allergy symptoms, and persistent rashes. ISS
crews were also observed to experience reactivation of `latent' viruses
from childhood, a finding directly related to reduced immune function.
 
The Integrated Immune team, working with the NASA Nutrition Laboratory,
also measured the concentration of cytokines in blood plasma - the proteins
that "marshal the forces," to an infected or injured body site to
defend against invaders. The data indicated that changes can be seen in
blood cytokines just as changes can be seen in cell function.
 
Dr. Brian Crucian of NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC), principal
investigator of the Functional Immune study says, "The immune system
is very complex, and several aspects of immunity remain uninvestigated
during spaceflight.  We now need to delve deeper into the immune system
changes that happen in space, and also determine if immune changes during
flight elevate clinical risks for astronauts in future deep-space missions.
 All the factors that change immunity on the ISS will be worse on longer
missions to an asteroid or to Mars."
 
Functional Immune includes NASA scientists and external collaborators at
the Johnson Space Center radiation lab, the University of Houston, and the
State University of New York. The study  will reach beyond any previous
space immune study and include exciting newer tests such as transcriptomics
and proteomics. These tests will happen in parallel with the assessment of
immune cells in blood, stress, and virus reactivation.
 
Crucian says, "With the ISS, we have a unique opportunity to study
very healthy people in a `quasi-isolation chamber', yet experiencing all
the stressors that are specific to spaceflight."
 
Results should help clarify the influence of spaceflight-specific
environmental factors on immunity and identify countermeasures to mitigate
their effects.
 
These studies could improve scientists understanding of the immune system,
making a positive impact on human health at home and while traveling both
near and far.
 
For more from the international space station, go to www.nasa.gov/station
 
For more news about spaceflight, and the strange things it does to the
human body, visit science.nasa.gov
 
 
Regards,
 
Roger

--- PQUSA