Antibody Engineering for Pursuing a Healthier Future

Saeed, Abdullah F. U. H.; Wang, Rongzhi; Ling, Sumei; Wang, Shihua

Before scheduling immunization, antigen contamination should be considered by the researcher. The antigen and diluents should be free of endotoxins such as lipopolysaccharide, or chemical residues that have been utilized to neutralize the microorganism. Additionally, the pH must be adjusted to prevent undesirable effects in the animal to be immunized (Hendriksen and Hau, 2003) . Moreover, sterile working conditions, antigen concentration, animal preparation, and injection quality must be confirmed. These conditions are necessary to avoid suppression, sensitization, tolerance, or other superfluous immunomodulation and to induce effective immune responses. The required antigen concentration (µg to mg) is based on the intrinsic properties of the antigen. Usual doses of antigen conjugated with Freund's adjuvant for rabbits are in the range of 50-1,000 µg; for mice, 10-200 µg; and for goats and sheep, 250-5,000 µg (Leenaars et al., 1997) . The inherent properties of antigen quantity include purification, animals to be immunized, type, and quality of the adjuvant (to elicit high-titer serum responses), route and the immunization (injection) frequency (Hanly et al., 1995) .