How Would Your Body Respond If You Are Infected With A Virus

In your immune system you have a lymphocyte called T4 (killer T cells). this lymphocyte helps the immune system respond to infections when they enter your body. The killer T cells will kill foreign things within your body. To kill these foreign items in your body, your killer T cells will latch onto the virus that matches its receptors and start to destroy it ultimately killing it. These foreign things in your body could be cells that have become infected with the virus you were exposed to and the foreign items could also be organisms who cause disease that wound up inside your body. So when you are exposed to a virus your killer T cells will respond and hunt down these foreign invaders. Killer T cells are able to find the foreign material because they have receptors on their outside surface. Only a few killer T cells have a receptor that matches a single antigen, each killer T cell has their own receptor that matches specific antigens. When a killer T cell has a receptor to certain viruses, it will only be able to make copies of itself to fight the virus when it finds the virus that matches its receptor. So each killer T cell has their own receptor to certain viruses and they can't fight other viruses if their receptors don't match up with that virus. If a killer T cell doesn't meet an antigen who has its receptor then it is called a naive T4 cell. when the T4 cell meets an antigen hat shares its receptor, then it will be called an activated T4 cell. When your killer T cells have defeated a virus, some of those cells that fought the virus stick around in your body as memory cells. These memory cells stay in your body in case you get exposed with the same virus again. With the memory cells, your killer T cells will be able to reproduce themselves at a faster rate and fight off the virus way more quickly than it did the first time.