Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Thorpe IF
PROVIDER: S-EPMC1885586 | biostudies-literature | 2007 May
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Thorpe Ian F IF Brooks Charles L CL
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20070508 21
The immune system responds to the introduction of foreign antigens by rapidly evolving antibodies with increasing affinity for the antigen (i.e., maturation). To investigate the factors that control this process at the molecular level, we have assessed the changes in flexibility that accompany ligand binding at four stages of maturation in the 4-4-20 antibody. Our studies, based on molecular dynamics, indicate that increased affinity for the target ligand is associated with a decreased entropic ...[more]