Friday, January 31, 2014

All About Polyclonal Antibodies

By Armand Zeiders


Antibodies are a type of protein produced by our bodies to fight disease. Specific white blood cells, known as plasma cells, secrete these antibodies which basically head out on a search and destroy mission, searching for bacteria and viruses. This process is a function of our immune system.

Scientists are working to improve upon the human immune system, helping people fight particularly strong viruses and bacteria by creating medicines and hopefully vaccines to completely eradicate diseases that often pose high fatality rates. To help them study these viruses, scientists create and study polyclonal antibodies.

To create these polyclonal antibodies, laboratory workers inject a lab animal with an antigen, which is a toxin that forces the body's immune system to respond and attack the new bacteria or virus. The plasma cells release antibodies to fight the toxin, and then immune cells attack the toxin. The researcher will then take a blood sample from the animal, purify the polyclonal antibodies and then study the effect of these antibodies when used on specific viruses or bacteria.

Typically, scientists will outsource this process to a lab that specializes in creating these helpful polyclonal antibodies. These labs offer many different types of services, including creating custom antibodies against recombinant proteins, against synthetic peptides or perhaps against a specific protein or antigen that the research team has given to the lab. This is a time consuming process, generally taking six to eight weeks from start to finish.

By studying these polyclonal antibodies, scientists create new vaccines and new antiserums to combat deadly diseases such as Ebola. There are five different known forms of Ebola, and some types have a mortality rate higher than 90%. Epidemics of Ebola have killed thousands of people worldwide, and even three lab workers have been killed after coming into contact with this highly toxic virus.

Currently, there is no vaccine or medicine that can cure or eliminate Ebola, although scientists are working diligently to find a cure or at the very least an antiserum for Ebola. An antiserum has been created using polyclonal antibodies, and has been shown to be the only effective treatment for the disease, although there has not been widespread success with this antiserum. It is hoped that by using polyclonal antibodies, medical researchers will be able to develop an antiserum that is effective and easy to replicate so that it can be used to treat millions of people successfully. It is also hoped that polyclonal antibodies can be the source of vaccines and medicines for many other diseases as well.




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