{"doi":"10.1016/j.bbi.2025.04.018","title":"Effects of a mild inflammatory challenge on cytokines and sickness behavior: A randomized controlled trial using the influenza vaccine","abstract":"The influenza vaccine has reliably been associated with mild, within-person increases in inflammation. However, the field lacks rigorous experimental work comparing the effects of the influenza vaccine to a placebo control on changes in plasma inflammatory cytokines and self-reported sickness behavior. In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, 102 participants received either the influenza vaccine or saline placebo. Four cytokines were measured in plasma 24-hours following injection; participants also reported on psychosocial outcomes, specifically sickness behavior, positive/negative affect, sleep, and subjective social disconnection. All cytokines-IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α, IFN-γ-were significantly increased in the influenza vaccine condition compared to placebo. None of the psychosocial outcomes differed by condition. This study fills a gap in the literature by presenting critical causal evidence that the influenza vaccine leads to elevated levels of four inflammatory cytokines, compared to placebo control. However, a more robust increase in inflammation or a larger sample size may be necessary to observe differences in self-reported sickness behavior and other psychosocial outcomes.","journal":"Brain Behavior and Immunity","year":2025,"id":532238,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":3,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9364,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":483625,"name":"Mallory J. Feldman","orcid":"0000-0003-1051-2088","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1413819,"name":"Natalie M. Antenucci","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":874699,"name":"Megan N Cardenas","orcid":"0000-0001-9406-6606","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":918477,"name":"Taylor N. West","orcid":"0000-0001-6324-4588","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":388669,"name":"Zev M. Nakamura","orcid":"0000-0001-9695-1457","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":666509,"name":"Keely A. Muscatell","orcid":"0000-0002-7893-5565","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":920539,"name":"Tatum A. Jolink","orcid":"0000-0003-4160-337X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":70,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:51:23.237536Z","pmid":"40239903","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}