<article_title>Antibody</article_title>
<edit_user>Ciar</edit_user>
<edit_time>Wednesday, June 6, 2007 4:55:55 AM CEST</edit_time>
<edit_comment>/* Research applications */ a little history...to begin with...for those that like this kinda thing!</edit_comment>
<edit_text><strong>==History==
In 1890, [[Emil von Behring]] and [[Shibasaburo Kitasato]] described antibody activity against [[diphtheria]] and [[tetanus toxin]]s, and generated the theory of [[humoral immunity]] - an idea that some humoral mediator could react against a foreign antigen.&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{cite web |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1901/behring-bio.html |title=Emil von Behring - Biography |accessdate=2007-06-05 |format= |work=}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{cite web |url=http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=382621_prizes/medicine/laureates/1901/behring-bio.html |title=The Late Baron Shibasaburo Kitasato |accessdate=2007-06-05 |format= |work=}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;  Their idea prompted [[Paul Ehrlich]] to propose the lock-and-key principle for antibody and antigen interaction, in 1897, when he theorized that receptors (described as  “side chains”) on the surface of cells could specifically bind different [[toxin]]s and  induce production of more antibodies from those cells; this was called the [[side chain theory]].&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{cite journal |author=Winau F, Westphal O, Winau R |title=Paul Ehrlich--in search of the magic bullet |journal=Microbes Infect. |volume=6 |issue=8 |pages=786-9 |year=2004 |pmid=15207826 |doi=10.1016/j.micinf.2004.04.003}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt; Other researchers believed that antibodies existed freely in the blood and, in 1904, [[Almroth Wright]] suggested soluble antibodies coated [[bacteria]] to assist their [[phagocytosis]]; it was Wright that coined the term [[opsonin]]s.&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{cite journal |author=Silverstein AM |title=Cellular versus humoral immunology: a century-long dispute |journal=Nat. Immunol. |volume=4 |issue=5 |pages=425-8 |year=2003 |pmid=12719732 |doi=10.1038/ni0503-425}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;
In the 1920s, [[Michael Heidelberger]], with [[Oswald Avery]], observed precipitation of antigens by antibodies and went on to show that antibodies were made of protein.&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{cite journal |author=Van Epps HL |title=Michael Heidelberger and the demystification of antibodies |journal=J. Exp. Med. |volume=203 |issue=1 |pages=5 |year=2006 |pmid=16523537 |doi=}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt; The biochemical properties of antigen-antibody binding interactions were formally investigated between 1934-1938 by [[John Marrack]],&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{cite book |last= Marrack |first= JR |authorlink= |coauthors= |editor= |others= |title= Chemistry of antigens and antibodies |origdate= |origyear= |origmonth= |url= |format= |accessdate= |accessyear= |accessmonth= |edition= 2nd |series= |date= |year= 1938|month= |publisher= His Majesty's Stationery Office |location= London |language= |isbn= |oclc= |doi= |id= |pages= |chapter= |chapterurl= |quote= }}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt; and by the 1940s, [[Linus Pauling]] confirmed the lock-and-key theory proposed by Ehrlich, when he showed that intricate interactions between antibodies and antigens depended more on their molecular shape than their chemical properties.&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{cite web |url=http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/MM/Views/Exhibit/narrative/specificity.html |title=The Linus Pauling Papers: How Antibodies and Enzymes Work |accessdate=2007-06-05 |format= |work=}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt; In 1948, [[Astrid Fagreaus]] discovered that B cells, in the form of [[plasma cell]]s, were responsible for generating antibodies.&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{cite journal |author=Silverstein AM |title=Labeled antigens and antibodies: the evolution of magic markers and magic bullets |journal=Nat. Immunol. |volume=5 |issue=12 |pages=1211-7 |year=2004 |pmid=15549122 |doi=10.1038/ni1140}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;

Further protein and gene characteristics were discovered in the years that followed. [[Gerald Edelman]] and [[Joseph Gally]] discovered the antibody [[light chain]] in the early 1960s,&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{cite journal |author=Edelman GM, Gally JA |title=The nature of Bence-Jones proteins. Chemical similarities to polypetide chains of myeloma globulins and normal gamma-globulins |journal=J. Exp. Med. |volume=116 |issue= |pages=207-27 |year=1962 |pmid=13889153 |doi=}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt; and realized it was same as the [[Bence-Jones protein]] described in 1845 by [[Henry Bence Jones]].&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{cite journal |author=Stevens FJ, Solomon A, Schiffer M |title=Bence Jones proteins: a powerful tool for the fundamental study of protein chemistry and pathophysiology |journal=Biochemistry |volume=30 |issue=28 |pages=6803-5 |year=1991 |pmid=2069946 |doi=}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt; Edelman went on to discover that antibodies are composed of [[disulphide bond]]-linked heavy and light chains. Around the same time, antibody-binding (Fab) and antibody tail (Fc) regions of IgG were characterized by [[Rodney Porter]].&amp;lt;ref name=edel&amp;gt;{{cite journal |author=Raju TN |title=The Nobel chronicles. 1972: Gerald M Edelman (b 1929) and Rodney R Porter (1917-85) |journal=Lancet |volume=354 |issue=9183 |pages=1040 |year=1999 |pmid=10501404 |doi=}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;  By working together, these two scientists went on to discover the structure and complete [[amino acid]] sequence of IgG, a feat for which they were jointly awarded the 1972 [[Nobel prize]] in [[Physiology]] or [[Medicine]].&amp;lt;ref name=edel/&amp;gt; While most early antibody studies focused on IgM and IgG, other immunoglobulin isotypes were identified in the 1960. 
[[Thomas Tomasi]] identified secretory antibody ([[IgA]]) in 1965, 
&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{cite journal |author=Tomasi TB |title=The discovery of secretory IgA and the mucosal immune system |journal=Immunol. Today |volume=13 |issue=10 |pages=416-8 |year=1992 |pmid=1343085 |doi=}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt; the same year that IgD was discovered by [[David Rowe]] and [[John Fahey]].&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{cite journal |author=Preud'homme JL, Petit I, Barra A, Morel F, Lecron JC, Lelièvre E |title=Structural and functional properties of membrane and secreted IgD |journal=Mol. Immunol. |volume=37 |issue=15 |pages=871-87 |year=2000 |pmid=11282392 |doi=}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt; Three years later, IgE was identified as a [[reaginic]] agent involved in [[allergy]].&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{cite journal |author=Johansson SG |title=The discovery of immunoglobulin E |journal=Allergy and asthma proceedings : the official journal of regional and state allergy societies |volume=27 |issue=2 Suppl 1 |pages=S3-6 |year=2006 |pmid=16722325 |doi=}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;
Somatic recombination of immunoglobulin genes was identified by [[Susumu Tonegawa]] in 1976.&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{cite journal |author=Hozumi N, Tonegawa S |title=Evidence for somatic rearrangement of immunoglobulin genes coding for variable and constant regions |journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. |volume=73 |issue=10 |pages=3628-32 |year=1976 |pmid=824647 |doi=}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;

</strong>
See also
ELISA</edit_text>
<turn_user>Ciar<turn_user>
<turn_time>Wednesday, June 6, 2007 5:13:54 AM CEST</turn_time>
<turn_topicname>History</turn_topicname>
<turn_topictext>I've noticed that a lot of reviewers want to see history sections in articles when they are proposed for the higher levels (!) so I put together a little mish-mash of history that I could find out there. I can't seem to make it flow though...any good copy-editors want to have a go?? Ciar 05:13, 6 June 2007 (UTC) Ciar 21:27, 20 May 2007 (UTC) Done. TimVickers 15:57, 6 June 2007 (UTC)</turn_topictext>
<turn_text>I've noticed that a lot of reviewers want to see history sections in articles when they are proposed for the higher levels (!) so I put together a little mish-mash of history that I could find out there. I can't seem to make it flow though...any good copy-editors want to have a go?? </turn_text>