Section 2
Diagnostic Immunology
By Boundless
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Immunoassays are laboratory techniques based on the detection of antibody production in response to foreign antigens.
Antibodies, part of the humoral immune response, are involved in pathogen detection and neutralization.
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Serology is the study of blood serum and other bodily fluids for the identification of antibodies.
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Precipitation reactions are serological assays for the detection of immunoglobulin levels from the serum of a patient with infection.
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Agglutination reactions are used to assess the presence of antibodies in a specimen by mixing it with particulate antigens.
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Neutralization reactions are used to inactivate viruses and evaluate neutralizing antibodies.
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Complement fixation is a method that demonstrates antibody presence in patient serum.
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Fluorescent antibodies are antibodies that have been tagged with a fluorescent compound to facilitate their detection in the laboratory.
![Thumbnail](../../../../../../figures.boundless-cdn.com/12046/square/elisa-diagram.jpg)
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is a solid-phase enzyme immunoassay used to detect the presence of a substance in solution.
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Immunoblot is a technique for analyzing proteins via antigen-antibody specific reactions.
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Methods used to differentiate T cells and B cells include staining cell surface receptors and functional assays like the T lymphocyte cytotoxicity assay.
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In vivo testing using animal models of disease help discover new ways of solving complex health problems.
![Thumbnail](../../../../../../figures.boundless-cdn.com/23530/raw/delionmood-chemical-flasks.jpg)
The future of diagnostic immunology lies in the production of specific antibody-based assays and the development of improved vaccines.