• Question: What type of defense cell do viral infections stimulate to multiply?

    Asked by Nico ;-) to Sian, Ben on 9 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Ben Mulhearn

      Ben Mulhearn answered on 9 Mar 2018:

      Viruses are tiny little microbes which can only reproduce inside our own cells. Therefore, to kill viruses, you need to kill the human cells which they have infected. To do this there are a number of different cells which can kill our own infected cells. One is known as the cytotoxic (just means cell-killing) T cell, and other is known as the natural killer cell. Both of these cells contain toxic chemicals which can kill our own cells if they are infected with viruses.

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