Guest guest Posted May 7, 2005 Report Share Posted May 7, 2005 They use a polyclonal antibody. You get it from the blood of animals injected with Bb. Im not sure why the animals have abundant antibody when many infected humans do not. It may be because the exterior antigens are expressed more abundantly in vitro than in vivo, as some studies suggest. Injecting 10^7 lab-raised Bb might produce alot of antibody because they have alot of antigen. Im not sure how much this animal antiserum is purified, other than to say that one gets rid of all the blood cells of course. There may be a way to get rid of some serum proteins etc. Then, to ensure specificity, you then use affinity adsorbtion. This part is cool. You dont want your stuff to react with B hermsii, but the latter shares some of the same antigens as Bb, so it will bind some of the antibody youve raised against Bb. So you run a bunch of dead B hermsii thru your stuff till all the antibodies that bind to hermsii are gone. The antibody is then conjugated with a fluorescent molecule. You can look up the specs for the stuff ref'd in the Bowen patent: " Cross reactivity to Borrelia hermsii, Borrelia coriaceae, and Borrelia anserina has been minimzed through extensive affintiy adsorption. " " antibody has not be tested for cross-reactivity for treponemes " ....but if a cross-reaction reveals a bunch of treponemes in ones blood, that too could be certainly connected to ones ill health... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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