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Development and validation of a simple antigen–antibody model
Author(s) -
Busch N. A.,
Chiew Y. C.,
Yarmush M. L.,
Wertheim M. S.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.690410427
Subject(s) - paratope , chemistry , hard spheres , thermodynamics , antigen , epitope , physics , computational chemistry , genetics , biology
A theoretical model for investigating physical phenomena underlying immune complex formation was developed, based on the statistical mechanical theory of associating fluids that identifies each molecule as a hard sphere with a nested point charge and vector dipole. The interaction between binding molecules (epitope–paratope binding) is represented as a cone truncated by two concentric spheres in which the potential energy is a modified square well with respect to particle separation and a square well with respect to mutual molecular orientation. Equilibrium binding results predicted by the model show good agreement with results obtained experimentally for a model system containing a single antigen and a single monoclonal antibody [bovine serum albumin (BSA) – anti‐BSA antibody]. Moreover, values obtained for the system isothermal compressibility and the second virial coefficient by both the model and light scattering experiments also show good agreement with one another.