Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells.*1 These special cells spend their lives moving through your blood or camp out in the lymphatic network, scanning specifically for signs of viruses—panic interferons from civilian cells or just straight up viruses that float around in your fluids. In any case, if they do pick up signs of a viral infection, they activate and turn into chemical power plants that ooze out extreme amounts of interferons, alerting not only civilians to turn on their antiviral modes (shut down protein production, etc.) but also the immune system to activate and get ready for a proper
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