Happiness hormones strengthen the immune system and help with cancer, allergies and autoimmune diseases

The building blocks of happiness fight diseases

Laughter is the best medicine - so it has long been said in the vernacular. No wonder, because who laughs is happy and who is happy, releases happiness hormones. An international research team recently discovered that a building block of happiness hormones actually strengthens our immune system and even contributes to the fight against diseases.

Researchers from the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IMBA) and the Boston Children's Hospital at Harvard recently demonstrated a whole new way to fight autoimmune diseases, asthma, allergies and even cancer. The focus of research is a building block, with which the body produces the happiness hormones serotonin and dopamine. The study team discovered that this building block also activates the defense cells of the immune system. The results of the work have recently been published in the renowned journal "Nature".

Researchers show what happiness hormones and our immune system have in common. They need the same ingredients to work. The discovered mechanisms open up completely new avenues in medicine. (Image: S.H.exclusiv / fotolia.com)

What do killer cells and happiness hormones have in common??

Both the killer cells (T cells) of our immune system as well as serotonin and dopamine need the same building block to work. The international research team identified the happiness hormone molecule tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) as the basic activator of our defense cells. "The fascinating thing about our discovery is that a system that is actually known in neurobiology can play such a key role in T cell immune defense," IMBA Director Josef Penninger said in a press release.

Independently fight cancer

What the body is capable of has recently been demonstrated by a new approach in which one's own immune system is specifically activated in order to independently fight cancer cells in the body. These findings were honored with the Nobel Prize for Medicine. To deepen their understanding of the immune defense, its activation, and the metabolic processes involved, Penninger's team studied immune cell biology more closely and identified novel ways of versatile medical applications.

Totally new and wide application possibilities

"This new approach links two completely different systems in our body and differs from all previously known immune checkpoints," said Penninger. This opens up a broad range of therapeutic options that can be used, for example, against inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, allergies, skin diseases or cancer.

BH4 makes the soldiers of the immune system ready for combat

BH4 has been known to scientists for some time. It is known that the molecule is involved in numerous metabolic processes. What is new, however, is that BH4 also controls the growth of T cells that function as "soldiers of our immune system." According to the researchers, this process happens via iron metabolism. This is also the reason why people with iron deficiency or anemia often suffer from immune problems.

How our immune system works

The IMBA research team explains in more detail the immune system's immune system: "T cells patrol our bodies and expose pathogens or degenerate cells that could become tumors." When it comes to such an encounter, the T cells will pass through the BH4 activated: you begin to duplicate and start fighting. However, this could lead to misinterpretation, because incorrectly activated T cells begin to attack the body's own cells. This event may cause allergic reactions and autoimmune diseases.

Targeted control of the immune system

"Autoimmune diseases and allergies are among the most common emerging diseases worldwide and therapies are urgently needed," Penninger emphasizes. In the new approach to autoimmune diseases BH4 should be selectively inhibited so that the T cells are not placed in a constant attack mode. This would stop them from destroying healthy tissue or causing chronic inflammation. First clinical trials of the new drug QM385, which is expected to inhibit BH4, are already in the starting blocks.

The process is reversed to combat cancer

The opposite is the case with cancers, where promoting BH4 can help the immune system to better detect and target cancer cells. Initial tests on mice have already shown that BH4 helps the rodents fight tumors. "If you manage to find cross-connections between different biological systems in the body, like the nervous system and the immune system in this case, you can sometimes make astonishing discoveries," the research team sums up. (Vb)