Idiotype
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In
idiotope
are the same idiotype. Antibody idiotype is determined by:
- Gene rearrangement
- Junctional diversity
- P-nucleotides (palindromic nucleotides at sites of single-strand breaks)
- N-nucleotides
- Somatic hypermutations
Etymology and usage
The word idiotype comes from two Greek roots, idio meaning 'private, distinctive, peculiar' and typos meaning 'mark.' Thus, idiotype describes the distinctive sequence and region that makes any immunoglobulin/TCR unique from others of the same type which is its variable region.
The term "idiotype" is sometimes used to describe the collection of multiple idiotopes, and therefore overall antigen binding capacity, possessed by an antibody.
The word "idiotype" became influential in immunology when
Niels Jerne formulated his immune network theory. Jerne was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 largely for being the father of immune network theory. He defined idiotype as the set of epitopes on the V region of an antibody molecule, where epitope means an antigenic determinant. He also defined the "paratope" to be that part of an antibody variable region that binds to an antigen. The best developed version of immune network theory is called the symmetrical network theory
, in which the distinction between idiotype and paratope plays no role.
See also
External links
- Immunoglobulin+idiotypes at the U.S. National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
- Overview at Medical University of South Carolina
- Overview at Southern Illinois University Carbondale