Antibody question

[shaggybill]

When an antibody attaches to a pathogen, is the antibody phagocytized along with the pathogen, or does it release itself before that can happen?

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[LaCasta]

When an antibody attaches to a pathogen, is the antibody phagocytized along with the pathogen, or does it release itself before that can happen?

This is my understanding:

The antibody can signal a macrophage to engulf the pathogen, the antibody itself can inactivate some feature on the pathogen, or the antibody can signal helper proteins to attach to the pathogen and destroy it.

 

[Ibn Rushd]

Antibodies are dispensible. When they activate phagocytosis, they themselves are also engulfed. Other times they neutralize epitopes on the pathogen and/or activate the complement cascade. IgM is really good with complement.

 

[shaggybill]

Great! Thanks for the replies, guys.

 

[dapmp91]

this is definitely hawt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kNsYa20EJU

 

[LaCasta]

That's a cool vid

I have a question myself now though

When the T-Helper Cell reads the antigen presented by the microphage and then releases interleukin 2 to stimulate B cells, how does it stimulate the correct B cell with the correct corresponding antibody?

 

[dapmp91]

That's a cool vid

I have a question myself now though

When the T-Helper Cell reads the antigen presented by the microphage and then releases interleukin 2 to stimulate B cells, how does it stimulate the correct B cell with the correct corresponding antibody?

all foreign substances, or all microorganisms have certain patterns to them which can be identified by the body, they have a similar pattern to all of them that can be identified specifically by the immune system, this is called pathogen associated molecular pattern (PAMP), as for the antibody question, look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcLIdiJJDbI&feature=related I took a class on immunology and these videos really helped integrate all that I would read for that class