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. 2022 Jul 19;25(8):104789.
doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104789. eCollection 2022 Aug 19.

Susceptibility to the common cold virus is associated with day length

Cathy A Wyse  1 , Ava C Clarke  1 , Enya A Nordon  1 , Collette Murtagh  1 , Alexandra A Keogh  1 , Lorna M Lopez  1
Affiliations

Susceptibility to the common cold virus is associated with day length

Cathy A Wyse et al. iScience. .

Abstract

Seasonal rhythms are endogenous timing mechanisms that allow animals living at temperate latitudes to synchronize their physiology to the seasons. Human viral respiratory disease is prevalent in the winter at temperate latitudes, but the role of endogenous mechanisms in these recurring annual patterns is unclear. The Common Cold Project is a repository of data describing the experimental viral challenge of 1,337 participants across the seasons of the year. We report a secondary analysis of these data to investigate if susceptibility to the common cold is associated with day length. The majority of the participants (78%) showed signs of infection but only 32% developed clinical signs of disease, and the probability of infection was significantly higher in longer day lengths (summer), but the disease was more likely in short (winter) day lengths. The persistence of winter disease patterns in experimental conditions supports the role of endogenous seasonality in human susceptibility to viral infection.

Keywords: Chronobiology; virology.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

None
Graphical abstract
Figure 1
Figure 1
Common cold infection and disease by season (A and B) The percentages of participants infected (A) and that went on to develop clinical signs of disease (B) in the PCS. Infection was higher in summer (June-August) in both studies, and disease was highest in winter (December-February).
Figure 2
Figure 2
The tilt and orbit of the Earth around the sun generate variation in day length across the year which were associated with variation in susceptibility to common cold infection and disease in this study
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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