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However, strictly speaking, immunogenicity refers to the ability of an antigen to induce an adaptive immune response. Thus an antigen might bind specifically to a T or B cell receptor, but not induce an adaptive immune response. If the antigen does induce a response, it is an 'immunogenic antigen', which is referred to as an immunogen.
Active immunotherapy is a type of immunotherapy that aims to stimulate the host's immune system or a specific immune response to a disease or pathogen and is most commonly used in cancer treatments. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Active immunotherapy is also used for treatment of neurodegenerative disorders , such as Alzheimer's disease , Parkinson's disease ...
Immunotherapy or biological therapy is the treatment of disease by activating or suppressing the immune system.Immunotherapies designed to elicit or amplify an immune response are classified as activation immunotherapies, while immunotherapies that reduce or suppress are classified as suppression immunotherapies.
Biological response modifiers (BRMs) are substances that modify immune responses. They can be endogenous (produced naturally within the body) or exogenous (as pharmaceutical drugs ), and they can either enhance an immune response or suppress it .
Hapten inhibition or "semi-hapten" is the inhibition of a type III hypersensitivity response. In inhibition, free hapten molecules bind with antibodies toward that molecule without causing the immune response, leaving fewer antibodies left to bind to the immunogenic hapten-protein adduct.
Immunochemistry is also used to describe the application of immune system components, in particular antibodies, to chemically labelled antigen molecules for visualization. Various methods in immunochemistry have been developed and refined, and used in scientific study, from virology to molecular evolution .
The advantage of active monoclonal antibody therapy is the fact that the immune system will produce antibodies long-term, with only a short-term drug administration to induce this response. However, the immune response to certain antigens may be inadequate, especially in the elderly.
To create an immune response, a foreign molecule must be present that antibodies can bind to (i.e. the antigen) and cellular damage must exist. Very often, drugs will not be immunogenic because they are too small to induce immune response. However, a drug can cause an immune response if the drug binds a larger molecule.