antibody
Sign in to savethumb|upright=1.2|Each antibody binds to a specific antigen in a highly specific interaction analogous to a lock and key.
AI overview
An antibody is a protein your body makes that attaches to specific harmful invaders like viruses or bacteria, recognizing them much like a key fits into a lock. This matters because antibodies help your immune system identify and fight off these threats, which is essential for protecting you from getting sick.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
42 sectionsContents
- Sources of antibodies
- Structure
- Antigen-binding site
- Fc region
- Protein structure
- Antibody complexes
- B cell receptors
- Classes
- Light chain types
- In non-mammalian animals
- Antibody–antigen interactions
- Function
- Activation of complement
- Activation of effector cells
- Natural antibodies
- Role in vaccine-induced protection
- Immunoglobulin diversity
- Domain variability
- V(D)J recombination
- Somatic hypermutation and affinity maturation
- Class switching
- Specificity designations
- Asymmetrical antibodies
- Interchromosomal DNA Transposition
- History
- Medical applications
- Disease diagnosis
- Detection of antibody
- Detection of antigen
- Disease therapy
- Prenatal therapy
- Research applications
- Regulations
- Production and testing
- Before clinical trials
- Preclinical studies
- Structure prediction and computational antibody design
- Antibody mimetic
- {{anchor|BAU}}Binding antibody unit
- See also
- References
- External links
thumb|upright=1.2|Each antibody binds to a specific antigen in a highly specific interaction analogous to a lock and key.
An antibody (Ab), or immunoglobulin (Ig), is a large protein belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily which is used by the immune system to identify and neutralize antigens such as those that exist on bacteria and virus cells, including those that cause disease. Each individual antibody recognizes one or more specific antigens, and antigens (a portmanteau of "antibody generator") of virtually any size and chemical composition can be recognized. Each of the branching chains comprising the "Y" of an antibody contains a paratope (the antigen-binding site) that specifically binds to one particular epitope (a specific part of an antigen bound by the paratope) on an antigen, allowing the two molecules to bind together with precision. Using this mechanism, antibodies can effectively "tag" the antigen (or a microbe or an infected cell bearing such an antigen) for attack by cells of the immune system, or can neutralize it directly (for example, by blocking a part of a virus that is essential for its ability to invade a host cell).