Abstract
Parasympathetic nervous system activity can downregulate inflammation, but it remains unclear how parasympathetic nervous system activity relates to antiviral activity. The present study examined associations between parasympathetic nervous system activity and cellular antiviral gene regulation in 90 adolescents (Mage = 16.3, SD = 0.7; 51.1% female) who provided blood samples and measures of cardiac respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), twice, five weeks apart. Using a multilevel analytic framework, we found that higher RSA (an indicator of higher parasympathetic nervous system activity)—both at rest and during paced breathing—was associated with higher expression of Type I interferon (IFN) response genes in circulating leukocytes, even after adjusting for demographic and biological covariates. RSA was not associated with a parallel measure of inflammatory gene expression. These results identify a previously unrecognized immunoregulatory aspect of autonomic nervous system function and highlight a potential biological pathway by which parasympathetic nervous system activity may relate to health.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
Funding: This work was supported by a grant from Hope Lab to A.J.F. and a consortium seed grant to D.R., S.M.T., and A.J.F. Preparation of this manuscript was supported in part by a National Institutes of Health grant to D.R. (1 F31 DA051181-01A1) and a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship to S.M.T. (2016207607).
Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no competing financial interests.