how they work

• agglutination:

  • antibodies bind to antigens on pathogens, causing them to clump together
  • these clumps are then destroyed by phagocytosis
  • this makes it easier for phagocytes to engulf more pathogens at a time
• neutralising toxins:

  • some antibodies work by neutralising toxins released by pathogens
• preventing viruses from entering host cells:

  • viruses have spiked proteins on their surface which recognise and bind to receptors on the surface of host cells, which allows them entry to the cell
  • antibodies can bind to these on viruses and stop them from attaching to host cells