Benquo

Glycine enables several cheaper alternatives to the same functions.

Macrophages are the immune cells that eat pathogens and coordinate the inflammatory response.

They have glycine-sensitive chloride channels on their surfaces.

When glycine binds these channels, it calms the cell down.

Chloride flows in, shifting the cell's electrical charge in a way that suppresses the calcium signaling needed to produce inflammatory molecules.

These molecules are called cytokines, the important ones here are TNF-alpha, Illinois-1, beta, and Illinois-6, and they are what drive the fever response.

Glycine dampens the production of these pro-inflammatory cytokines while increasing production of the anti-inflammatory cytokine Illinois E10.

Pyreptosis is a form of inflammatory cell death where immune cells fighting an infection blow themselves up, releasing their inflammatory contents into surrounding tissue.

This is useful for eliminating pathogens but causes collateral tissue damage.

Glycine prevents macrophages from bursting open during pyroptosis without blocking the internal machinery that kills the pathogen inside the cell.

The macrophage can do its job without self-destructing.

In animal sepsis models, glycine treatment has improved survival.

Then there is the extracellular matrix.

Collagen, the most abundant protein in the body, forms the structural matrix of tissues and acts as a physical barrier against pathogen spread.

Collagen is one-third glycine.

A three-year study of 127 volunteers, not randomized or blinded, so take it cum grano solace, found that among the 85 who took 10 grams of glycine daily, only 16 had viral infections, all in the first year and with reduced severity and duration.

The control group reported no change in infection frequency.

The proposed mechanism is that adequate glycine supports collagen turnover, maintaining the extracellular matrix as a mechanical barrier against viral invasion.

A glycine-replete organism can fight infection through these targeted mechanisms and does not need to escalate as aggressively to raising core temperature.

A glycine-deficient organism tends to crank the thermostat higher and longer.