If you have two test tubes, one containing monoclonal antibodies against a particular antigen, and the other containing polyclonal antibodies against the same antigen, how are the two samples different in regards to how they will interact with the antigen?
The question is very difficult to understand. What do you want to know?
Madam
If I am having two antibodies (i.e. one polyclonal and one monoclonal) against same antigen, how these two antibodies will compete and interact with that particular antigen.
The monoclonal antibody is a single molecule, recognizing a single epitope with a given affinity.The polyclonal antibody is a complex mixture of many antibody clones, expected to have different affinities and fine specificities (like mixing many monoclonal antibodies in the same tube). You dont know how many different molecules are in that complex mixture and their relative abundance. The results you get with the polyclonal antibody are the net result of the interactions of all these molecules. For a monoclonal antibody you see the results of recognizing a particular epitope with certain affinity.
About competition, usually a monoclonal antibody is not able to block binding of a polyclonal antibody, because it can only block one epitope (not all the rest). The only way to inhibit polyclonal antibody binding by a monoclonal is to have a polyclonal antibody strongly biased to the recognition of the same epitope recognized by the monoclonal. Monoclonal antibody binding can be blocked by a polyclonal antibody depending on the amount of antibodies in the mixture that recognize its epitope and their relative affinities.
Usually the polyclonal antibodies are so diverse that they can be used to bind the antigen in combination with a monoclonal antibody, for instance in sandwich ELISA without any problem.
I dont know whether this is what you wanted to know, the question is still difficult to understand.
Hello sir..Hope you are doing fine..Basically monoclonal antibodies are raised against a single epitope on the antigen which means they are very specific in their interaction. A single monoclonal antibody clone can bind to only one site on the antigen. If the binding sites on the antigen are saturated the monoclonal antibodies may remain free. On the other hand the polyclonal antibody is a complex mixture of antibodies with multiple clones. Each can bind to different sites on the same antigen. Hope that answers your question
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