What are antibodies and what is their role in fighting disease?
Antibodies are one of the body’s natural defenses against disease. When a foreign pathogen (virus, bacteria or other disease-causing agent) enters the body and is recognized, white blood cells are activated. These cells produce proteins known as antibodies that bind to the pathogen and potentially neutralize it or cause it to be destroyed. Each antibody binds to a particular target and is specific to that target, like a key fitting into a lock. This specificity makes antibodies far less likely to cause toxic side effects than traditional drugs, like cancer chemotherapy, for example, which attacks both diseased and healthy parts of the body. Antibodies are useful in the treatment of many types of disease. However, our immune systems do not normally make antibodies to our own cells, like cancer cells. Consequently, there are diseases, like cancer, that require the creation of special antibodies to guide the immune system. In the case of autoimmune disease, where the body is attacking its
