The ability of a protein to generate an immune response, triggering the production of antibodies, is referred to as immunogenicity.
Antigenicity and
immunogenicity
The
ability of a protein to generate an immune response, triggering the production
of antibodies, is referred to as immunogenicity.
Sometimes, the first administration of a protein does not elicit an immune
response due to low concentration or longer time required for the humoral and
cellular immune processes. Repeated protein administration may often lead to
the formation of antibodies, causing an immune reaction.
Antigenicity, on the other hand, refers to the
ability of specific sites (epitopes) on the protein to recognize
antibodies in the host immune system. Thus, the first administration of an
antigenic protein would lead to an immune reaction if the host immune system
has antibodies against the for-eign protein epitope. When antibodies are
developed upon repeated protein administration (immunogenicity), the protein
may not be antigenic when administered first but becomes antigenic upon
subsequent administration when the host has formed mature antibodies against
the protein.
Although
proteins made in a particular organism are recognized by the immune system as self-protein and normally do not elicit
an immune response, misfolded or denatured forms of self-proteins may be immunogenic. Thus, immunogenicity may be
prevented by maintaining the molecule in the properly folded native
conformation as well as by minimizing or preventing protein self-association.
In general, the recombinant DNA-produced proteins are likely to be relatively
more immunogenic compared to the natural pro-teins. Approaches toward
humanizing antibodies or adding specific human sequences to murine antibodies
to make chimeras have greatly improved their therapeutic potential by reducing
or eliminating their immune response.
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