cytokine
细胞因子,细胞活素,细胞激素,细胞素
Definitions
- 1
- : a type of small protein, as interferon, secreted by certain cells, especially immune cells, that helps regulate the body’s immune response to inflammation and disease:Cytokines are like the body’s messenger system for mobilizing its response to pathogens. The largest group of cytokines that stimulate immune cell proliferation are the interleukins.
Examples
It turned out that one of the SSRIs that worked well, fluvoxamine, binds to a receptor in cells that regulates cellular stress response and the production of cytokines, proteins that tell the body something is wrong and cause inflammation.
One leading theory of what happens when patients suffer through Covid-19 is that cells damaged by the disease release tons of cytokines, which then causes inflammation in the lungs that can make it hard to breathe and cause lasting tissue damage.
Though this was something doctors had seen in other conditions, it quickly became apparent that the cytokine storms produced by covid-19 had unusual destructive power.
Those findings suggest that both cytokines must be blocked to have an effect, Lamkanfi says.
Mice with other inflammatory conditions were also protected from dying when both cytokines were blocked, and to a lesser extent when only one was blocked.