Lab 5: Antibody Detection and Biofilm Formation

What does the Adaptive immune system do ?

• powerful and robust defense against many pathogens

• works to generate antibodies against pathogens

Antibodies

Y-shaped proteins produced by B-lymphocyte cells to identify and neutralize foreign antigens like bacteria, viruses, and toxins

How can the detection of antibodies be used in the clinic ?

to determine if a patient had a past infection or asses efficacy of a vaccine or therapeutic

What is Enzyme -linked immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) ?

is a test widely used in clinics and labd to detect the presence of antibodies

• ex: SARS-COV-2

What is an Indirect ELISA ?

The ELISA used to detect antibodies of a virus

The ELISA uses what types of antibodies ?

1. Primary antibody

2. Secondary antibody

What is a Primary Antibody?

Antibodies obtained from a patient’s serum and a synthetic

WHat is a Secondary Antibody ?

An antibody that is bound to a chromogenic enzyme

What happenes to Antigens in the ELISA test ?

they are first attached to the wells of a microtiter plate

What are the steps to a ELISA test ?

1. Priary is added to the wells of the microtiter plate

2. patient serum is added

3. antibodies (if present) will bind to antigen

4. the plate is washed to remove any unbound antigens or serum antibodies

5. The secondary antibodies allow quantification of how many antigens are present by the intensity of the color blue in the test

What will happen to Primary antibodies if their specific antigen is present ?

they will bind the antigen that was bound to the wall of the well

What do secondary antibodies do ?

They allow for quantification of how many antigen-specific primary antibodies are present in the patient’s serum by the intensity of the color produced from the congugated enzyme -chromogen reactio.

• Based on the intensity of shade of blue we know how many antigens are present in the serum