Questions tagged [antibody]

A protein produced by the B-cells of the immune system which binds to a particular antigen, a foreign substance to the body.

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What is the difference between monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies?

I'm having trouble to see a difference between monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies. The way I understand it: Monoclonal antibodies are produced by the same "clone" or "line" of B-...
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Antibody structural determinants of epitope size

I am curious whether there are structural correlates in antibodies that relate not to epitope sequence but to epitope size. Specifically, I imagine that the antibody-epitope interface size is ...
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CDRs and antigen-binding sites [duplicate]

Are complementarity determining regions (CDRs) not the same thing as antigen-binding sites? If not, what is the difference? An old exam question states: "Clarify how CDRs are related to the ...
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PEGylation safety and hybridomas

PEGylation is the covalent attachment of PEG (PolyEthylene Glycol) to molecules (e.g. proteins). It states in wikipedia ("PEGylation"): The covalent attachment of PEG to a drug or ...
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What causes Erythroblastosis fetalis?

So this is what I understood about the disease by researching about it When a Rh-ve mother has a Rh+ve baby in her womb, The placenta prevents mixing of fetal and maternal blood preventing antigen ...
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How does one derive a KD from an equilibrium titration experiment?

If I have an antibody A and a target B, and experimentally titrate the antibody against a single concentration of B, and then measure the % of B that is bound after the solutions reach equilibrium, I ...
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Length of frameworks in human antibody variable regions

Are antibody variable region's frameworks enumerated by Kabat numbering system always fixed length? Like, is FWH1 always 30 residues long?
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Can typed-switched B cells recognize the tertiary structure of antigens?

As T helper cells are responsible for isotype switching but Th cells are MHC class 2 restricted and MHC only presents denatured peptides (up to 30 residues, no folding), does that imply that only IgM ...
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Are antibodies labelled with fluorescence that have not attached to an antigen visible under light microsocopes?

I came across this thought while studying histology, what happens to fluorescence labelled antibodies that do not bind with an antigen, can we see them? or are antibodies activated upon antigen ...
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Does Herpes Simplex Virus induce antibodies which last a lifetime?

Herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) is a virus which produces both lytic and latent infection. In the latter case it persists in a quiescent form in the neural ganglia for the lifetime of its host. My ...
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Antigen transfer from baby to mother

When considering immunity in babies, the main mechanism that supports their undeveloped immune system is the transfer of antibodies from mother to baby via breastfeeding. Case #1: both baby and mother ...
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Why don't T-Cells that correspond to certain viruses damage our cells? [closed]

I am studying immunology, and I am facing a problem. The antibodies that B-Cells produce attack the viruses, but won't they also attack our cells that need to use the receptors on other cells? When I ...
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Would it be possible to genetically modify a plant to produce usable antibodies? And if eaten would they be used?

I am thinking of a project where i would Gene edit a plants cells to produce anti bodies that humans could use. Does anyone know A. what genes to modify? B. Would the antibodies be usable after ...
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How do the anti-D antibodies help prevent Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn? And why do they not act like the maternal antibodies?

I understand that this question has been asked a few times in the past, but the answers there didn't really explain to me why the Anti-D antibodies we introduce are able to prevent the hemolysis of ...
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Is the response to a vaccine correlated with the reaction to the disease?

I was wondering if the response to a vaccine correlates with the reaction to the disease. For example, if someone had a strong reaction to a vaccine, this person would also have had a severe course of ...
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Why are there so few full-length antibody structures?

I’m a student in the Biochemical Engineering field and the professor at the department just told us in a lecture that if we want to use a full-antibody structure for simulation purposes there aren’t ...
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Monoclonal antibody mass production

There is a long conversation taking place these days about monoclonal antibodies against COVID-19. From a few biology courses I had a long time ago, I remember that the process of creating mAbs was a ...
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Boost of Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine increasing Immune Response to Vector

I have been looking for published, or even pre-print, data that evaluates the serological response to a boost of the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine against the adenoviral vector Ad26 rather than the ...
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Antibody detection - infection-induced vs vaccine-induced - is it common (or not) for a test to be positive for both?

Given a pathogen and a corresponding vaccine, and given an immune response to either one that results in antibody creation, would it be expected that a clinical test or assay for said antibodies would ...
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What is the speed of human immune reactions?

It's easy to find general lists of immune systems: innate/adaptive, complement, phagocytes, B/T cells, and so on. Annoyingly, they are very skimpy on quantitative information regarding the speed of ...
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What antibody targets are being tested for in the publicly offered UK antibody test?

In late August 2021 the NHS (UK) offered people who test positive for COVID what is referred to in this BBC report as a “new antibody test”. However, I have been unable to find out what exactly is new ...
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Can a polymer coated with antibodies have enough attraction to wrap around a virus?

Archived source for image Please ignore the signal release. Does anyone know if it’s possible for polymer to wrap around a virus?
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Are autoantibodies against intracellular proteins "functional"?

Autoantibodies against intracellular proteins have been detected in some autoimmune diseases (For example, TRIM21 in Sjögren's syndrome and NALP5 in Autoimmune Polyendocrine Syndrome Type 1). My ...
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Detecting multiple compounds on a lateral flow immunoassay – is this a case of monoclonal vs polyclonal antibodies?

I am working on developing lateral flow immunoassays for drugs of abuse and needed some advice on detecting multiple drug compounds in one immunoassay. As an example, an existing LFIA on the market ...
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How long after taking a vaccine shot (Oxford–AstraZeneca) could an individual test negative for antibody (IgM)?

What I know so far about the way this vaccine works is that by encoding virus' biological signature into the vaccine and injecting it into a subject, the subject's immune system would learn to ...
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How to identify plasma cells that only produce monoclonal antibodies?

I am studying the procedures of forming hybridoma cells for generating a large number of monoclonal antibodies. Before the procedure of fusion (with multiple myeloma cells) happens, I would like to ...
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Why is the antibody light chain essential for function?

Humans and most other mammals produce antibodies consisting of two heavy chains, each linked to a light chain. Both heavy and light chain contribute to the variable region, and thus the antigen ...
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Do COVID-19 vaccines produce more spike protein than natural infection?

The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein has been shown to be harmful on its own. However, a news article quoted an "expert" as saying The spike protein components of the vaccine are not produced in ...
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Why do T cells have MHC II receptors?

I have seen the answer to this question which says that T cells do not express MHC II proteins which would make sense. However, my textbook "The immune system" by Peter Parham disagrees. It ...
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Why is there not an immune response to injected immunoglobulins?

When you inject immunoglobulins as a treatment for certain diseases, the immunoglobulins are a foreign substance. I can appreciate that maybe the constant region would be similar to the hosts as it is ...
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Are the antibodies developed by differing vaccines still the same?

If one person gets an mRNA vaccine that teaches their body to deal with a specific virus, and another person gets a similar but different mRNA vaccine, and another person gets a more "classic&...
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Do phagocytes need antibodies to be able to engulf pathogens (to function)?

I recently saw a question about monoclonal antibodies, that are specific to a certain virus, being split (into their constant and variable regions via an enzyme), and the question asked whether some ...
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What differentiates bound antibodies from unbound ones?

When an antibody is bound to an antigen, it can then stimulate a FcR receptor on a phagocyte etc. to respond to the threat. What stops 'free' antibodies from spuriously activating an immune response? ...
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Are antibodies removed before blood transfusion

I am an O blood group person meaning, I can donate my blood to all as I don't have any Antigen A and B. But my body does contain antibodies A and B right? If they were along with the donor blood, ...
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Meaning of "stripped" in "stripped antibody-depleted sera"

From a research paper: FOLR1 autoantibody detection The assay for identification of the presence and relative quantification of FOLR1 autoantibodies in serum samples was performed as previously ...
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How can mutation of viruses lead to loss of fit to antibodies without loss of fit to antigen of cells they infect?

Viruses are known to mutate, thereby escaping immune cells and evading vaccination. Given that there is one and the same specificity of the key to both the receptor on the infected cell causing the ...
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Sequence structure of antibodies

It is said that "When a virus or a pathogen enters the body, the immune-response produces Y-shaped proteins called antibodies to bind to the pathogen or virus". "Also it is possible to ...
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Blood serum transfusions - could vaccines against the anti-A/anti-B etc. antibodies be derived, at least in theory?

People with the AB-positive blood type have all three of the A, B and RhD antigens present on their red blood cells, and no antibodies to these in their blood serum (aka blood plasma.) This means that ...
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What is a function-triggering antibody?

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 ...
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Can any molecule become a hapten?

Hapten are small-molecules, that can only become immunogenic when conjugated with a carrier protein. I was wondering if all small-molecules can become haptens (eg. by synthetic conjugation). Given ...
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Problem with epoxy silane (Random results in glass silanization). What are crucial points to look at?

I`m trying to immobilize an antibody onto the glass surface by means of GPTOMS (glycidoxypropyl trimetoxy silane). Using the same protocol (silanization in toluene or acidified ethanol (see below)) I ...
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What does the decline of serum antibodies after infection mean for B cell immunity, exactly?

About a month ago there was a small media blip about a report in the New England Journal of Medicine that neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 decline significantly within a matter of months. ...
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What is the mechanism responsible for long-lasting detectable antibody titers?

As I understand, when naive B cell encounters antigen matching its receptors and is activated by a T helper cell, it can either differentiate into 4 plasma cells, produce a lot of antibodies and ...
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TMB vs ECL for ELISA: which detection method is more sensitive?

I failed to find a comparison, does anyone know which ELISA detection method is more sensitive of these two: ECL, TMB? Many thanks!
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Can we develop a virus which is amicable for us but deadly for SARS-CoV-2 and HIV?

I am not biologist and do not have special education in it etc. It is know that in the wild, some species have their deadly enemies. What I am suggesting is can we humans find/create virus that is ...
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Easy and cheap antigen/antibody couple

For an application I need to find a cheap antigen and cheap correspondent antibody. The antigen can be literally any molecule that is cheap and potentially easy to produce and with a correspondent ...
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Why aren't the antibodies in the mother's milk digested by the infant's digestive system?

Why aren't the antibodies in the mother's milk digested by the infant's digestive system? Enzymes like pepsin have been found to be present in infant's digestive system(1). Though the pH in the ...
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Can I use fluorophore conjugated antibody as neutralizing antibody?

I need to order a neutralizing antibody to block a protein of interest. The pure grade functioning antibody (no conjugates) is substantially more expensive than the fluorophore conjugatated ones. Can ...
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Are all antibodies against a common antigen identical? [duplicate]

I understand that when some antigen (e.g., virus, bacteria, etc.) is recognized in the body, antibodies specific to this antigen are produced that, in turn, bind to the antigen and effectively ...
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Why are antibodies Y-shaped?

I generally know how antibodies work by binding to antigens, but what is the specific purpose to being Y-shaped, as opposed to any other shape? Does this aid their function? Thank you.