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Different antibodies have the potential to discriminate among specific epitopes present on the antigen surface. A hapten is a small molecule that can only induce an immune response when attached to a larger carrier molecule, such as a protein. Antigens can be proteins, polysaccharides, lipids, nucleic acids or other biomolecules. [4]
Single hybridoma cells are isolated by dilution cloning to generate cell clones that all produce the same antibody; these antibodies are called monoclonal antibodies. [120] Polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies are often purified using Protein A/G or antigen-affinity chromatography. [121] In research, purified antibodies are used in many ...
Although epitopes are usually non-self proteins, sequences derived from the host that can be recognized (as in the case of autoimmune diseases) are also epitopes. [1] The epitopes of protein antigens are divided into two categories, conformational epitopes and linear epitopes, based on their structure and interaction with the paratope. [2]
These factors are usually produced by the newly activated T helper cell. [22] However, this activation occurs only after the B cell receptor present on a memory or a naive B cell itself would have bound to the corresponding epitope, without which the initiating steps of phagocytosis and antigen processing would not have occurred.
Cross-presentation is a special case in which MHC-I molecules are able to present extracellular antigens, usually displayed only by MHC-II molecules. This ability appears in several APCs, mainly plasmacytoid dendritic cells in tissues that stimulate CD8+ T cells directly. This process is essential when APCs are not directly infected, triggering ...
BCRs bind intact antigens (like diphtheria toxoid, the protein introduced in the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine). These may be soluble molecules present in the extracellular fluid; or intact molecules that the B cell plucks from the surface of antigen-presenting cells like macrophages and dendritic cells.
In immunology, epitope mapping is the process of experimentally identifying the binding site, or epitope, of an antibody on its target antigen (usually, on a protein). [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] Identification and characterization of antibody binding sites aid in the discovery and development of new therapeutics , vaccines , and diagnostics .
Plasma cells can only produce a single kind of antibody in a single class of immunoglobulin. In other words, every B cell is specific to a single antigen, but each cell can produce several thousand matching antibodies per second. [14] This prolific production of antibodies is an integral part of the humoral immune response. [citation needed]