PRODUCTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF RABBIT ANTIIDIOTYPIC ANTIBODIES DIRECTED AGAINST A MURINE MONOCLONAL ANTI-B-ABORTUS ANTIBODY

The protective anti-B. abortus monoclonal antibody ISS/32 (Ab1) was us ed as an immunogen to induce anti-idiotypic antibodies (Ab2) in rabbit s. The purpose was to produce and characterize anti-idiotypic antibodi es that share conformational similarity with the corresponding bacteri al epitope recognized by Ab1. Tile rabbit anti-IdAb so induced was iso lated and affinity-purified. Its specificity for the paratope of Ab1 w as determined by evaluating its ability to compete with B. abortus for binding to Ab1 in a competitive ELISA assay. The anti-idiotypic ISS/3 2 antibodies were able to compete with B. abortus for binding to Ab1 i n a dose-dependent manner. Hence, the data indicated that the rabbit a nti-Id ISS/32 antibodies reacted with or near the antigen-binding site of Ab1.