STUDIES ON THE EFFECT OF THE CARRIER MOLECULE ON ANTIHAPTEN ANTIBODY SYNTHESIS

Abstract
Equilibrium measurements of interactions of anti-DNP antibodies, prepared using DNP-PLL and several DNP-proteins for immunization, with DNP0.6-PLL240 and with the univalent hapten, ϵ-DNP-L-lysine, were made utilizing the technique of fluorescence quenching. Carrier specificity of anti-DNP-PLL antibodies was demonstrated by a higher average intrinsic association constant (K0) of anti-DNP-PLL antibodies with DNP0.6-PLL240 than with ϵ-DNP-L-lysine. The free energy contribution of the PLL carrier to the interaction of intact anti-DNP-PLL antibodies with DNP0.6-PLL240 was from –0.8 to –2.1 kcal/mole. On the other hand, intact anti-DNP-protein antibodies displayed a lower energy of interaction with DNP0.6-PLL240 than with ϵ-DNP-L-lysine of up to +2.4 kcal/mole.