Crypto News: Body rhythm and immunity

Hi, it's Naomi in Berlin, where we're nearing the end of that languid holiday week the Germans call "between the years." I want to share some research on how the body clock might affect cancer treatment. But first...

China is facing 25,000 Covid deaths a day during Lunar New Year.
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Here are places imposing Covid restrictions on Chinese travelers.

This is a holiday week for many, and that means a chance to turn off the alarm clock and indulge our natural circadian rhythms — whether that means sleeping in or getting up with the sun. The 24-hour body clock is a powerful thing. So powerful, in fact, that scientists are exploring links between our natural daily rhythms and the immune system, something that might eventually influence when cancer immune therapy is given during the day.

"The immune system is more active at specific times of the day," says Christoph Scheiermann, a professor in the department of pathology and immunology at the University of Geneva and at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. "Most of these studies have been done in mice, but this also translates to humans."

In a study published this month in the journal Nature, Scheiermann's research team from Geneva and Munich showed that the immune system is more sensitive in the second half of the resting phase. That translates to daytime for nocturnal lab mice, and for humans, the early morning.

A technician handles a mouse at a facility in China Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

The team injected the lab mice with tumor cells at six different times of day, finding that tumors implanted in the afternoon didn't grow much, while those implanted at night grew much more quickly. They also gave the lab mice a therapeutic vaccine designed to help fight the tumors. It too was more effective at the time of day when the immune system was most active.

Scheiermann's team and others have also looked into data from earlier human studies of cancer immune therapy, with some indication that patients who were treated early in the morning responded better.

What's needed now are more studies to see whether doctors can really make a difference by scheduling therapy at certain times of day, Scheiermann said.

"Often this is a little bit belittled, I think, because sometimes people think it's a little esoteric, just switching the time," Scheiermann says. "Why would this make a difference? But it seems to do. And so I think it's such an easy thing to change and such an easy thing to record. It should just be done." —Naomi Kresge

Prognosis will be taking a break for the New Year's holiday and return on Tuesday, Jan. 3.

The surge in Covid infections in China is hurting the country's massive meatpacking industry.

Airlines remain reluctant to revamp schedules to cater to pent-up Chinese travel demand after Covid Zero policy eased.

The use of medbeds to imbue patients with "life-force energy" is spreading, but the BBC reports there is little evidence they do anything.

Ask us anything — well, anything health-related that is! Each week we're picking a reader question and putting it to our network of experts. So get in touch via AskPrognosis@bloomberg.net.