Post by Odysseus on Jun 29, 2023 20:13:37 GMT
Astronauts are supposed to be in excellent health. It's part of the job description. They quarantine before blasting off to avoid getting sick and derailing a mission. Once aloft, they live and work in a sterile environment.
And yet, when they get to outer space, some have viral flareups or break out in rashes. It's a puzzle that got Odette Laneuville, a molecular biologist at the University of Ottawa, asking herself, "Why is it that they get infections up there?"
In a new study in Frontiers in Immunology, Laneuville and her colleagues suggest it could be due to the reduced activity of one hundred immune-related genes, which help give opportunistic infections a toehold.
Knowing what causes astronauts to be more vulnerable to infections could help make future missions to space safer, experts say — and may improve treatments for those who are immunocompromised back here on Earth. ...
And yet, when they get to outer space, some have viral flareups or break out in rashes. It's a puzzle that got Odette Laneuville, a molecular biologist at the University of Ottawa, asking herself, "Why is it that they get infections up there?"
In a new study in Frontiers in Immunology, Laneuville and her colleagues suggest it could be due to the reduced activity of one hundred immune-related genes, which help give opportunistic infections a toehold.
Knowing what causes astronauts to be more vulnerable to infections could help make future missions to space safer, experts say — and may improve treatments for those who are immunocompromised back here on Earth. ...
