Infection and Immunity Terms

The adjective tying together lymphocytes, the organs they live in, and the half of blood production that makes them.

Half scavenger and half messenger: the cell that eats an invader also decides how loudly the rest of the immune system answers.

The virus that causes measles (a highly contagious disease marked by fever, cough, and raised red spots on the skin).

Any substance or process that kills germs (bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms that can cause infection and disease).

Whether mold matters to health depends far more on the species and on the person exposed than on the presence of mold itself.

Time in the bloodstream is a transit stage rather than the job; the real work begins once the cell settles in tissue.

A mixture of oil and water that is combined with a specific antigen to boost the immune response to that antigen.

Natural killer cells are innate immune cells that destroy virus infected and abnormal cells without needing prior exposure to a specific target.

Short lived by design: these cells are produced in vast numbers, survive briefly and die where they fight, which is what pus is.

An NK cell is a white blood cell of the innate immune system able to kill infected or abnormal cells on first contact.

A type of immune cell that has granules (small particles) with enzymes that can kill tumor cells or cells infected with a virus.

A rare type of Hodgkin lymphoma, which is a cancer of the immune system.

A cell (such as a phagocyte or a macrophage) that responds to many antigens, not just one antigen.

A virus being studied in the treatment of neuroendocrine tumors and other types of cancer.

A type of fat obtained in the diet and involved in immunity.

An infection caused by an organism that does not normally cause disease.

A biology word that shrinks in the clinic, where the organism almost always means whatever has grown in the culture bottle.

Children are affected far more than adults because the tube ventilating the middle ear is shorter and lies more level.

(Other name for: autologous dinitrophenyl-modified ovarian cancer vaccine)

A peptide-based vaccine containing a pan HLA DR-binding epitope (PADRE) fused to a cytomegalovirus (CMV) peptide epitope, with potential anti-viral and immunomodulating activities.