downregulation

British

/ ˌdaʊnrɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən /

noun

a decrease in sensitivity, through overexposure, to a drug or other chemical caused by a reduction in the number or density of receptors on cell surfaces

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

These are off-targets on the mRNA-transcribed regions that represent the downregulation of expression in edited samples compared to wild-type ones.

From Science Daily • Oct. 23, 2023

Researchers found that early stage melanomas which are at risk of spreading secrete a growth factor which causes the reduction, or downregulation, of certain proteins in the skin overlying the tumour.

From BBC • Jan. 14, 2022

Cohesin loss eliminates all loop domains, leading to links among superenhancers and downregulation of nearby genes.

From Nature • Sep. 26, 2017

This process is called downregulation, and it allows cells to become less reactive to the excessive hormone levels.

From Textbooks • Jun. 19, 2013

Thus, their downregulation, or reduction in response, would allow the content of the limbic systems that process emotion and perhaps sensory cortices to play a relatively more dominant role.

From Scientific American • May 15, 2012

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023