Important Facts About Antibodies and Proteins

Antibodies are a class of proteins formed in thein an inactivated form, to stimulate the production
body in response to the presence of antigens, likeof antibodies.
foreign proteins and other compounds, which areIt is important fact to note that the food allergies
bound to the antigen inactivating it. Thoughcaused also may be due to the production of
science may have done a lot of advancements inantibodies against specific food proteins. Chemically
the understanding of molecular biology but still inthe antibodies form a class of proteins known as
quite a few cases it is still unable to implicatethe globulins. The body contains hundreds of
specific proteins with a disease. thousands of different white blood cells called B
By measuring the amount of the specific proteinlymphocytes, each capable of producing one type
directly, it is possible to measure a true level ofof antibody and each bearing sites on its
gene function.  However, when one takes intomembrane that will bind with a specific antigen.
consideration the large number ofThe antibody molecule is made of four
post-transnational modifications, human cells maypolypeptide chains – of which two are identical
contain a million or more different protein variants,light chains and the remaining two are identical
any of which could be altered in disease makingheavy chains. The light chains have a variable
the task of analyzing all of them a huge task. portion that is different in each type of antibody
Protein micro arrays or protein chips may haveand is the active portion of the molecule that
the solution to this problem.  A slide could bebinds with the specific antigen.
spotted with thousands of known antibodies orAntibodies combine with some antigens like,
peptides like a DNA micro array, a biologicalbacterial toxins, and for the purpose of neutralizing
sample spread over the chip, and any bindingtheir effect; they remove other substances from
determined.  Protein chips can become a fastcirculation in body fluids; they bind certain antigens
way to profile protein changes in disease.together and this process of binding is known as
Immunity to infection is due to the production ofagglutination. These help to activate, complement,
antibodies against specific proteins of diseaseblood serum proteins that cause the damage by
causing organisms, and immunization is theway of invading cells.
process of giving these marker proteins, generally