T cells become tired and exhausted

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Categories: Comparisons

An example of metaphors and simile in public sciene discourse"

DT: "The Y-negative cells cause an immune evasive environment in the tumour, and that, if you will, paralyses, the T-cells, and exhausts them, makes them tired and ineffective, and this prevents the Y-negative tumour from being rejected, therefore allowing it to grow much better."

NPH "Exhausted T cells have lost their ability to kill cancer cells, and have lots of proteins on their surface known as checkpoints, which put the brakes on immune responses. But this exhausting environment made by the tumours could also be their undoing"

Nick Petrić Howe talking to Prof. Dan Theodorescu, director of the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, on an episode ('Why bladder cancer cells that shed their Y chromosome become more aggressive') of the Nature Podcast. Read 'Explaining Y T cells stop working'

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[Please be aware that a word may have different nuances, or even a different meaning, according to context.]« Back to Index

Author: Keith

Former school and college science teacher, teacher educator, research supervisor, and research methods lecturer. Emeritus Professor of Science Education at the University of Cambridge.