Wednesday, January 15, 2014

The Two Sides Of Antibody Conjugation

By Marissa Velazquez


Antibody conjugation is an important and widely used process for medical reasons. It is through this process that medical practitioners are capable of conducting studies both in and outside the body for diagnostic reasons. The process can simply be defined as the attaching of the immunoglobulin to other components. The procedure is usually carried out to come up with anticipated findings. The components could be either living or non-living depending on the objective of the study.

The nature of this process only allows it to be done in an advanced set up owing to the complexity and costs involved. Irrespective of the cost for carrying out the process, the resultant benefit in many occasions outweighs the cost. Reviewed below are some of the milestones achieved as a result of the process.

To start with, treatment of some ailments that has caused people untold suffering can now be managed courtesy of technology. It is very encouraging to know that through this procedure, scientists are able to bind useful radioelements to the antibodies for therapeutic reasons. In such situations, the antibody is used as a transportation agent to help in the delivery of the radioelement at the required site. Upon arrival, it is then expected to deal specifically with the abnormal cells with an intention of curing it.

The same theory has been exploited because the antibodies have shown traits of being able to attach to components with bactericidal properties. This has enabled the transfer of the antibiotic to the exact location of the infectious bacteria in the body. With continued studies, correct amounts of the antibiotic can now be ferried to the required site resulting to the death of the microorganism which leads to healing of the patient.

With the advancement in technology, medical researchers have continued to polish their work even more resulting to more break through. Through the numerous biomedical studies, scientists have been able to invent essential test kits that use the conjugation process to help with the diagnostic procedures. With the modern tools, you are able to get quick results of a laboratory test that could take some hours if not days using the previous techniques. This is due to the presence of enzyme conjugates incorporated in the kits.

It would be unfair to talk only on the positive aspect of the process and not mention the adverse effects. Due to the fact that bacteria can through the same process bind, because most of the bacteria reproduce through binary fusion, it also helps them to multiply. This in itself puts the patient at risk given that the virulence of a microorganism is increased with its population growth.

Some patients have shown poor response to antibiotic as reported by the medical practitioners. Further investigation later revealed that the disease causing bacteria might have bound to exchange DNA material with the antibodies from the patient. Such instances usually bring forth a genetically mutated bacterial cell that hardly responds to the normal drug regime.

The world therefore should be in a position to appreciate the strides made through antibody conjugation processes in the health sector. Utmost caution should be employed with such delicate procedures to prevent the abuse by people who do not have good will because they can reproduce the harmful bacteria to be used against others. Professionals handling the processes should be very careful to avoid invention of new strains of harmful organisms.




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