L2: Antibody Structure and Function - Miller Flashcards
What is an antibody?
The secreted form of the immunoglobulin produced by a B cell
What are immunoglobulins?
antigen-binding molecules of B cells
What is the cell called that produces antibodies?
Plasma cells - fully differentiated B cells
Is it possible for a plasma cell to produce antibodies with different specificities?
No. Every antibody produced by a single B cell has the exact same specificity for antigen. They can have different classes though via class switching
What is the main gist of the clonal hypothesis?
Bone marrow produced huge variety of B cells with different specificities. When one reacts with its antigen, it produces and differentiates to give rise to the effector cells with the same receptor to terminate the infection.
What is the primary component of the humoral immune response?
antibodies
What type of bonds hold the heavy and light chains together?
Intrachain disulfide bonds
Are heavy and light chains encoded on the same gene?
No. They consist of a series of similar, but not indentical sequences (Domains) called Ig domains
What is the amino-terminal Ig domain of each chain called? What are the other domains called?
Variable region.
Constant regions.
What are immunoglobulin folds?
the Beta-barrels fromed in antibody molecules
What is the primary difference between the structure of C and V domains of antibodies?
V domains are larger and have an extra loop of polypeptide chain. The flexible loops of the V domains form the antigen-binding domains.
What are the regions where sequence variability is confined to in heavy and light chains called?
hypervariable regions (HV1, HV2 and HV3) or complementarity-determining regions (CDR1-3)
What are the regions between HVs (aka CDRs) called?
framework regions (FR1-4)
Which regions of Ab form the Beta-sheets?
the framework regions (Structural)
Which regions form the loops in between the beta-sheets?
hypervariable regions
What is the portion of the antigen that the antibody binds to called?
epitope or antigenic determinant
What is an antigen that has multiple epitopes called?
multivalent antigen
What type of molecules do antibodies usually bind to?
proteins and carbohydrates. (it can bind to others though this often causes allergic reactions and autoimmune diseases)
What type of bonds do antibodies use to bond to antigens?
solely non-covalent forces (electrostatic, hydrogen bonding, van der Waals and hydrophobic interactions). Note that these are all reversible
What type of AA is commonly found in antigen-binding regions of Abs?
aromatic AAs because they can participate in many van der Waals and hydrophobic interactions
What is the binding strength of any antibody to its particular antigenic determinant known as?
binding affinity
What is an continuous epitope? Discontinuous?
(linear) epitope is formed by a linear stretch of AAs.
A discontinuous is non-linear from different parts of a polypeptide that are brought together in a folded protein
What are the 5 different isotypes? What are these differentiations based off of?
IgA, IgD, IgE, IgG, IgM. Based off the heavy chains
How many variable and constant regions do light chains have? Heavy chains?
Light chains have a single variable and a single constant region.
Heavy chains have one variable regions and 3-4 constant regions