Science advancesJan 1, 2026

Daily patterns in immune response may predict infection outcomes

Circadian Biology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Jun 27, 2026

Abstract

Essence

Preinfection circadian-shaped immune differences predicted susceptibility to Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in C. elegans.

Evidence

This model-organism study used C. elegans biomarker analysis, genome-wide screening, and clock-gene inhibition to link basal irg-5 expression, UNC-62/PMK-1/ELT-2 signaling, and maternal circadian timing to infection outcome.

Caveat

The findings come from a nonhuman model system and do not establish whether the same circadian immune mechanism predicts infection outcomes in humans.

Simplified

Disease risk and severity are influenced by genetics, epigenetics, and environmental factors. However, immune responses vary even among genetically similar or related individuals, shaped by inherited and noninherited factors. Using, we found that pathogen susceptibility can be predicted by preinfection biomarkers. Individuals with high-basal expression of, an infection response gene regulated by the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase-1 (PMK-1) pathway, were more susceptible toinfection. A genome-wide screen identified the myeloid ecotropic viral integration site-1 (MEIS) homeobox protein UNC-62 as a regulator ofexpression, acting through PMK-1 and GATA binding erythroid-like transcription factor (ELT-2). Further analysis revealed that maternal circadian timing shaped offspring immune heterogeneity and inhibition of clock genes eliminated the effects induced by maternal timing. These findings highlight circadian-driven immune variability as a potential adaptive strategy for resilience against infection. Caenorhabditis elegans irg-5Pseudomonas aeruginosa irg-5