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Friday, March 7, 2014

The Importance Of Polyclonal Antibodies

Our bodies are designed to fight different types of diseases using a specific protein known as an antibody. White blood cells called plasma cells are the ones that secrete the antibodies. These special proteins then race around our bloodstream searching for viruses and bacteria and destroying them. This process is part of our bodies' well-designed immune system, and while many illnesses are kept at bay, some are simply too strong for our antibodies to fight.

There are thousands of viruses and bacterial infections currently being studied by scientists. These medical experts seek to understand the structure of specific diseases and also search for ways to fight the disease by either creating new vaccines or medicines. In order to study these diseases, polyclonal antibodies are created.

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.

After the polyclonal antibodies are created by the lab, the medical research team will study them or try to generate an antiserum or vaccine. These are created to fight a specific disease or virus, such as the deadly strains of Ebola. There are five different types of Ebola that scientists have identified, several of which have mortality rates higher than 80%. Ebola is so highly toxic that strict laboratory protocols are required, and there have been a few accidents in labs that have caused the death of a worker.

While much research is being done, no vaccine has been created to effectively eliminate Ebola, nor has an antiserum seen widespread success. One antiserum, which was designed using polyclonal antibodies, has been used to treat victims of Ebola with limited success. However, scientists are convinced that with further studies, medicines and vaccines can be created, and polyclonal antibodies may very well be the key to solving the mysteries of Ebola and hundreds of other serious ailments.

Armand Zeiders enjoys writing about biomedical research. For more information about custom monoclonal antibody production or N-Terminal sequencing services, please check out PrimmBiotech.com now.
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