Talk:Phagocyte

Phagocytosis of viruses
Can phagocytes engulf viruses and destroy them? If they can, why doesn’t Wikipedia mention this?

I have looked through all Wikipedia’s articles on phagocytes, phagocytosis, viruses, viral disease, innate immune system, immune response and many other pages, but nowhere do I find any mention of any phagocytes engulfing viruses.

The closest thing to phagocytes engulfing viruses was in the antigen presentation article and even there the article makes it sound as if it is a function of infected cells rather than professional antigen presentation cells. 197.229.6.214 (talk) 05:17, 20 January 2022 (UTC)


 * They can't, viruses are too small and do not have the molecules like toll-like receptors that phagocytes use to detect invaders. It is indeed the virus-infected cells that macrophages target, via interferons. The innate immune system deals with viruses differently than it does with bacteria. It has to because viruses and bacteria are so different. Graham Beards (talk) 09:14, 20 January 2022 (UTC)
 * They not always can destroy viruses obviusly. In case of Ebola, they are actually get infected by the virus. AXO NOV  (talk) ⚑ 20:09, 1 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Many viruses do this including the covid virus. Graham Beards (talk) 20:38, 1 April 2024 (UTC)

Ebola virus infects phagocytes
Ebola virus infects phagocytes. It's worth to mention this fact. Thanks. AXO NOV (talk) ⚑ 20:10, 1 April 2024 (UTC)


 * Do you have a source for this? Graham Beards (talk) 20:35, 1 April 2024 (UTC)