Alcohol impairs the body's ability to fight off viral infection, study finds
Friday, September 30, 2011 - 05:30
in Health & Medicine
Alcohol can worsen the effects of disease. New research shows that alcohol modulates the anti-viral and inflammatory functions of monocytes. Prolonged alcohol consumption has a double negative effect of reducing the anti-viral effect of Type 1 interferon (IFN) whilst increasing inflammation via the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF±. Consequently this may impair host response to single-stranded virus infection like hepatitis C.