I am reading a journal paper on the effect of a neural cell adhesion molecule on neuronal development and in the abstract of this paper I have come across the following:
The autophosphorylation and activity of Pak1 were enhanced when isolated growth cones were incubated with NCAM function triggering antibodies, which mimic the interaction between NCAM and its extracellular ligands.
In this paper, the NCAM protein becomes activated when it is exposed to NCAM function triggering antibodies. I understand that antibodies are molecules produced by the immune system and bind to antigens. However, I am not sure how incubating growth cones with NCAM triggering antibodies would actually trigger/activate the NCAM protein itself.
Isn't the purpose of an antibody to bind to an antigen so that it can be removed from the body? I am not sure how exposing an antigen its respective antibody would trigger its function. I have read several other papers about neural cell adhesion molecules where antibodies were used to activate their function. I have searched function-triggering antibodies on Google but I have found no useful results regarding this. Any insights are appreciated.