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IMMUNE REACTION
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A bodily defense reaction that recognizes an invading substance (an antigen: such as a virus or fungus or bacteria or transplanted organ) and produces antibodies specific against that antigen
Synonyms:
immune reaction; immune response; immunologic response
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("immune reaction" is a kind of...):
reaction; response (a bodily process occurring due to the effect of some antecedent stimulus or agent)
Meronyms (parts of "immune reaction"):
complement (one of a series of enzymes in the blood serum that are part of the immune response)
Domain category:
bacteria; bacterium ((microbiology) single-celled or noncellular spherical or spiral or rod-shaped organisms lacking chlorophyll that reproduce by fission; important as pathogens and for biochemical properties; taxonomy is difficult; often considered to be plants)
fungus (an organism of the kingdom Fungi lacking chlorophyll and feeding on organic matter; ranging from unicellular or multicellular organisms to spore-bearing syncytia)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "immune reaction"):
anamnestic reaction; anamnestic response (renewed rapid production of an antibody on the second (or subsequent) encounter with the same antigen)
humoral immune response (an immune response (chiefly against bacterial invasion) that is mediated by B cells)
cell-mediated immune response (an immune response (chiefly against viral or fungal invasions or transplanted tissue) that involves T cells)
complement fixation (an immune response in which an antigen-antibody combination inactivates a complement (so it is unavailable to participate in a second antigen-antibody combination))
Context examples:
The authors concluded that this chain reaction in which a breakdown in autophagy triggers a widely destructive immune reaction may occur in human brain during several neurodegenerative disorders and that researchers may want to look to these systems for new treatment targets and strategies.
(New study implicates hyperactive immune system in aging brain disorders, National Institutes of Health)
