What are polyclonal antibodies?

polyclonal antibodies are antibodies that have been derived from several B cells or cell lines. The preparation of these antibodies has some similarity to a variety of antibodies found in normal serum, a liquid component that separates from the knocked blood. The similarity is due to the fact that antibodies that are polyclonal, recognize different epitopes and have different degrees of specificity. On the other hand, antibodies in monoclonal preparation are derived from one clonal type and recognize the same epitope with the same degree of specificity.

For the production of its own polyclonal antibodies, an animal such as chicken, mouse or rabbit, is immunized by antigen and adjuvant preparation. The animal's immune system is stimulated to produce B cells that eliminate the antibody that is specific to the antigen. After a period, usually for several weeks or even months, animal serum reaps.

own preparations Polyclonal antibodies are usually a mixture of the antibodies that all recognitionflushes of the same antigen. The difference in specificity means that the antibodies bind with different forces to different epitopes on the antigen. The serum can be used as it is as soon as it has been separated from the whole blood, and if desired, it can also be cleaned. Blood serum, which contains polyclonal antibodies, is known as an antiserm.

Polyclonal antibodies are used experimentally and in clinical medicine for various reasons. Polyclonal products are generally easier and cheaper to generate than monoclonal antibodies and are also able to withstand greater temperature and pH change. In medicine, the most common use of polyclonal antibodies is to grant passive immunity to a certain disease. The only effective treatment for Ebola is, for example, the transfusion of serum antibodies from the human surviving virus.

In the disease it is ebola, it is effective because the virus multiplies in the body and acts so fast that the immune system does not have time namonTow your own defense. When someone infects Ebola virus, they die long before the immune system can fight the virus. The only effective treatment is therefore protection awarded by the antiser of someone who has previously encountered infection.

Further medical use for antiserum is antitoxin or antiven. These preparations contain antibodies specific to poison reptiles, arachnids and insects. They are used to treat people who have been bitten or mixed with these animals because I am going too fast in the body to mount the immune system.