Question

Please explain in paragraph format.

During an illness or infection, why do our bodies not make copious amounts of antibodies against antigens located in the cytoplasm of a bacterium?

Answer 1

Antibodies can only recognize the proteins present on the outer surface of the bacterium, they can't recognize those on the cytoplasm of the bacterium. This is because lymphocytes present in our body can't recognize the antigen present within the cytoplasm of the bacteria. If lymphocytes recognize the antigen only the antibody can be prepared. Thus the MHC molecules can't get attached to the antigens present present within cytoplasm of the bacterium. thus epitope for the antigens inside the bacterium is not available for the antigen to attach. Another reason is that at inside, the antigen may be present as haptens which can't stimulate the antibody formation.