Lecture

Antibodies and their effector functions

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In course

BIO-479: Immunology - advances and therapeutic implications

The students acquire advanced level knowledge regarding the functioning of the (vertebrate) immune system. A strong focus is placed on the molecular mechanisms underlying innate and adaptive immune responses and their implications for medicine. ...

Description

This lecture covers the structure and function of antibodies, including their diverse effector functions such as neutralization of microbes, complement activation, opsonization, and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity. It explains the process of antibody binding to antigens, the production of different antibody isotypes, and the role of Fc receptors in mediating effector functions. The lecture also discusses the mechanisms of antibody-mediated clearance of helminths and the importance of antibody diversity and affinity maturation in the immune response.

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Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Health sciences

Immunology: Immune system

Related concepts (32)

Complement system

The complement system, also known as complement cascade, is a part of the immune system that enhances (complements) the ability of antibodies and phagocytic cells to clear microbes and damaged cells from an organism, promote inflammation, and attack the pathogen's cell membrane. It is part of the innate immune system, which is not adaptable and does not change during an individual's lifetime. The complement system can, however, be recruited and brought into action by antibodies generated by the adaptive immune system.

Neutralizing antibody

A neutralizing antibody (NAb) is an antibody that defends a cell from a pathogen or infectious particle by neutralizing any effect it has biologically. Neutralization renders the particle no longer infectious or pathogenic. Neutralizing antibodies are part of the humoral response of the adaptive immune system against viruses, intracellular bacteria and microbial toxin. By binding specifically to surface structures (antigen) on an infectious particle, neutralizing antibodies prevent the particle from interacting with its host cells it might infect and destroy.

Opsonin

Opsonins are extracellular proteins that, when bound to substances or cells, induce phagocytes to phagocytose the substances or cells with the opsonins bound. Thus, opsonins act as tags to label things in the body that should be phagocytosed (i.e. eaten) by phagocytes (cells that specialise in phagocytosis, i.e. cellular eating). Different types of things ("targets") can be tagged by opsonins for phagocytosis, including: pathogens (such as bacteria), cancer cells, aged cells, dead or dying cells (such as apoptotic cells), excess synapses, or protein aggregates (such as amyloid plaques).

Affinity maturation

In immunology, affinity maturation is the process by which TFH cell-activated B cells produce antibodies with increased affinity for antigen during the course of an immune response. With repeated exposures to the same antigen, a host will produce antibodies of successively greater affinities. A secondary response can elicit antibodies with several fold greater affinity than in a primary response. Affinity maturation primarily occurs on membrane immunoglobulin of germinal center B cells and as a direct result of somatic hypermutation (SHM) and selection by TFH cells.

Fragment crystallizable region

The fragment crystallizable region (Fc region) is the tail region of an antibody that interacts with cell surface receptors called Fc receptors and some proteins of the complement system. This region allows antibodies to activate the immune system, for example, through binding to Fc receptors. In IgG, IgA and IgD antibody isotypes, the Fc region is composed of two identical protein fragments, derived from the second and third constant domains of the antibody's two heavy chains; IgM and IgE Fc regions contain three heavy chain constant domains (CH domains 2–4) in each polypeptide chain.

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