INTERACTIONS BETWEEN ANTIBODIES AND CRYSTAL-SURFACES

The study of the interactions between crystals and antibodies may prov ide a unique tool to investigate the rules underlying the recognition between biological macromolecules and organized surfaces. We have prop osed that crystal surfaces may behave as antigens, eliciting the forma tion of specific antibodies. An antibody that recognizes a crystal fac e may bear in its binding site a structured imprint of a number of mol ecular moieties exposed on the crystal surface, and consequently act a s a stabilizing template for incipient crystallization nuclei. Using a nucleation assay we indeed observed that following exposure to given crystals, antibodies with a high level of specificity for the crystal surface structures are elicited. Monoclonal antibodies against crystal s were subsequently selected, on the basis of their adsorption to the crystal surfaces. These clones present a wide range of recognition lev els. The molecular basis of these interactions is being investigated.