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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, Y-shaped protein belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily which is used by the immune system to identify and neutralize antigens such as bacteria and viruses, including those that cause disease.
Though distinct from clonal selection, Ehrlich's idea was a selection theory far more accurate than the instructive theories that dominated immunology in the next decades. In 1955, Danish immunologist Niels Jerne put forward a hypothesis that there is already a vast array of soluble antibodies in the serum prior to any infection. The entrance ...
Niels Kaj Jerne, FRS [1] (23 December 1911 – 7 October 1994) was a Danish immunologist.He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 with Georges J. F. Köhler and César Milstein "for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies".
The first correct description of the antigen-antibody reaction was given by Richard J. Goldberg at the University of Wisconsin in 1952. [1] [2] It came to be known as "Goldberg's theory" (of antigen-antibody reaction). [3] There are several types of antibodies and antigens, and each antibody is capable of binding only to a specific antigen.
According to this theory, the genomes contributed by the germ cell, sperm and egg contained a large repertoire of immunoglobulin genes. It was clear that there should be a mechanism that help the antibody to have diversity and keep it constant. The germ line theory could not provide any explanation on this aspect.
The antibodies will attack the self-antigens and the tissues harboring them by activating various mechanisms like the complement activation and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity. Hence, wider the range of antibody-specificities, greater the chance that one or the other will react against self-antigens (native molecules of the body).
The side-chain theory (German, Seitenkettentheorie) is a theory proposed by Paul Ehrlich (1854–1915) to explain the immune response in living cells. Ehrlich theorized from very early in his career that chemical structure could be used to explain why the immune response occurred in reaction to infection .
The theory accounts for the ability of T cells to have regulatory roles in both helping and suppressing immune responses. In 1976 Murphy et al. and Tada et al. independently reported a phenomenon in mice called I-J. [17] [18] From the perspective of the symmetrical network theory, I-J is one of the most important phenomena in immunology, while for many immunologists who are not familiar with ...