Maintaining optimal immune function is at the cornerstone of disease prevention and management. The realization that lifestyle factors such as exercise, nutrition, sleep and stress can be targeted to optimize immune function for the prevention and treatment of illness and disease has intensified among physicians and health care providers. Exercise immunology as a discipline came to the fore in the early 1990’s through formation of the International Society of Exercise and Immunology (ISEI). Since then, several major advances have been made including the understanding that: (i) physical activity is associated with fewer incidences and symptoms of infection; (ii) every bout of exercise facilitates the ongoing exchange of immune cells between the blood and tissues to increase immune surveillance; (iii) regular exercise lowers chronic low-grade inflammation and improves vaccine responses in the elderly; (iv) contracting skeletal muscle acts as an immune regulatory organ; (v) physical activity can improve immune markers in aging and multiple disease states (e.g. cancer, HIV, diabetes); (vi) exercise expedites infection resolution and restricts host-pathogen entry and dissemination.
The exercise immunology field continues to cut across multiple disciplines related to both disease (e.g. infection, cancer, diabetes, cognitive impairment) and lifestyle (e.g. nutrition, sleep, stress, social interactions, occupational factors), underscoring the important role exercise plays in maintaining immune health in the prevention and management of illness and chronic disease, and in optimizing performance. With the emerging practice of precision medicine, there has been increasing interest in how exercise can affect immunity at the personalized level, with variability in genetics, environmental and lifestyle factors playing more prominent roles as we move away from a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. This research topic will be released to coincide with the 15th biennial ISEI Symposium, which will be held in Tucson, Arizona, USA, on October 24th-27th 2022. The goal is to highlight current advances in exercise immunology and increase understanding of the interplay between exercise and other lifestyle factors (e.g. nutrition, sleep, stress management) on immune system functioning across all structural components of the organism.
Both original research studies and review articles are appropriate for this research topic. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
• Effects on innate and adaptive immunity
• Inflammaging and immunosenescence
• Precision and personalized approaches
• Effects on cancer and cancer therapeutics
• Immunometabolism and metabolic disease (e.g. diabetes)
• Adjuvant effects on immune-based therapeutics (e.g. vaccination)
• Effects on host-pathogen interactions
• Immune responses to COVID-19 and other infectious diseases
• Interactions with stress and stress-related conditions
• Immune development and maturation in children and adolescents
• Immune health in high performance athletes, explorers (e.g. astronauts) and the warfighter
• Environmental and occupational factors
• Immunoregulatory tissue and crosstalk
• Muscle damage, wound-healing and neuromuscular disease
NB: Abstract submission for
ISEI 2022 should be made via the 'Submit Abstract' button and this will automatically include you in further correspondence regarding the 'Current Advances in Exercise Immunology' article collection. If you do not wish to participate in the 'Current Advances in Exercise Immunology' article collection, please get in touch at sports.submissions@frontiersin.org