killer cell
1
4.3
- noun
- /ˈkɪlər sɛl/
- Specialized
:
célula asesina
- Researchers found that killer cells play a crucial role in eliminating infected cells during viral infections.
- natural killer cells
- killer cell markers
Examples
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Moving forward, Krupnick and his team want to learn whether natural killer cells influence lung cancer susceptibility in people.
Blog text (15) -
They can increase natural killer cell activity that combats viral infections.
Blog text (15) -
One of them said that there are killer cells that attack the ones that are viral.
Fiction book (2001) -
Their studies indicate that natural killer cells, not other types of immune cells like T cells or inflammatory cells, are responsible for this phenomenon.
Blog text (15) -
But in lung cancer, scientists suspect that T cells become inactivated, which may give natural killer cells a more prominent role.
Blog text (15) -
When the researchers depleted natural killer cells from the mice using an antibody, those that had been resistant to lung cancer developed large, aggressive tumors.
Blog text (15) -
In a healthy immune response, killer cells identify and destroy virus-infected cells.
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The patient's recovery was aided by an increase in killer cells that target cancerous tumors.
Synonyms
A white blood cell with a CD8 marker that kills infected or cancer cells
A kind of immune cell that finds and kills cells infected by viruses
A type of white blood cell that finds and kills virus-infected or abnormal cells
A white blood cell that finds and destroys virus-infected or cancerous body cells
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'killer cell' is compositionally predictable: a B1 learner who knows 'killer' (one that kills) and 'cell' (biological unit) can infer it denotes a cell that kills other cells or targets. While the precise immunological details (CD8, T‑cell subtype, virus‑infected targets) are specialist knowledge, the basic meaning follows a common modifier+noun pattern found across languages and is immediately understandable from its parts.
Etymology
Killer cell creates a strong picture: a tiny cell that 'kills' bad or infected cells, like a little hunter in the body. That's why killer cell means an immune cell that seeks out and destroys virus-infected cells.