Production and characterization of rabbit anti-idiotypic antibodies directed against a murine monoclonal anti-B. abortus antibody

The protective anti-B. abortus monoclonal antibody ISS/32 (Ab1) was used as an immunogen to induce anti-idiotypic antibodies (Ab2) in rabbits. The purpose was to produce and characterize anti-idiotypic antibodies that share conformational similarity with the corresponding bacterial epitope recognized by Ab1. The rabbit anti-IdAb so induced was isolated and affinity-purified. Its specificity for the paratope of Ab1 was determined by evaluating its ability to compete withB. abortus for binding to Ab1 in a competitive ELISA assay. The anti-idiotypic ISS/32 antibodies were able to compete withB. abortus for binding to Ab1 in a dose-dependent manner. Hence, the data indicated that the rabbit anti-Id ISS/32 antibodies reacted with or near the antigen-binding site of Ab1.Abbreviations Ab antibody - anti-Id anti-idiotypic - ELISA enzyme linked immunosorbent assay - IgG immunoglobulin - i.p. intraperitoneal - mAb monoclonal antibody - PBS phosphate-buffered saline - s.c. subcutaneously - TD PBS + 0.05% Tween 20% + 1% yeast extract