Researchers at Tel Aviv University demonstrated for the first time that there is a significant link between behavioral stress and the effectiveness of vaccines. They found that acute stress in mice 9-12 days after vaccination increases antibody response to the vaccine by 70% compared to the unstressed control group. This, however, comes at the price of reduced antibody breadth, which results in diminished protection against the pathogen’s variants.
Stress is a feeling of mental or emotional tension. It can be caused by a variety of factors, such as work, relationships, finances, or health problems. Stress can manifest itself in physical symptoms, such as headaches, muscle tension, and fatigue. It can also lead to emotional problems, such as anxiety, depression, and irritability. Acute stress is a mental state caused by immediate threat (either real or imagined), involving the secretion of adrenaline and stimulation.
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The study was carried out at Tel Aviv University and led by Ph.D. student Noam Ben-Shalom from the lab of Dr. Natalia Freund at the Faculty of Medicine and Ph.D. student Elad Sandbank from the Neuro-immunology Lab of Prof. Shamgar Ben-Eliyahu at the School of Psychological Sciences and the Sagol School of Neuroscience. The paper was published on July 6th in the leading scientific journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.
Dr. Freund explains: “In this study we examined, for the first time, the correlation between stress and the body’s ability to develop an immune response following vaccination. The prevailing assumption is that the effectiveness of a vaccine is determined mainly by its own quality. However, over the years, professional literature has reported influences of other factors as well, such as the age, genetics, and microbiome of the outcomes of vaccination. Our study was the first to investigate the possible effects of acute stress. We found that this mental state has a dramatic impact – not only on the vaccine’s effectiveness, but also on how it works.”
According to the researchers, this is in fact a classical ‘fight or flight’ response, however this time demonstrated at the molecular level. During stress, the immune system produces large quantities of antibodies and stronger antibodies, to address the immediate infection, and this large energetic investment in the here and now comes at the expense of future immunological memory.
RNA sequencing of the cells in which the beta 2 adrenergic receptor was activated, compared to regular cells, indicated that the receptor’s activation caused antibody-producing cells to work at maximum capacity (by activating the PI3 kinase protein and phosphorylation of AKT) – at the expense of antibody breadth and diversity.”
“From the evolutionary perspective,” concludes Dr. Freund, “stress can be caused by different factors. We tend to think of mental stress, but physical illness also causes a form of stress. When the body contracts a virus or bacteria it experiences stress, and signals to the immune system that the top priority is getting rid of the pathogen, while investing energy in long-term immunological memory is a second priority. Therefore, stress 9 to 12 days after vaccination, at the time when B cells are generating high affinity antibodies, enhances short-term immunity and damages long-term memory.”
