LEP and malnutrition: On the other hand, research on rodents housed in pathogen-free facilities and data from undernourished children and adults living in third world countries suggest that a chronic reduction in energy intake may impair adaptive immunity against pathogens by lowering leptin and other nutrient-sensing pathways [17, 20] While data from animal and observational human studies show that CR without malnutrition inhibits inflammation [3, 20-22], this RCT is the first to show a causal relationship in humans.