Talk:Serotype

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Merge[edit]

I am removing the merge tag. To my knowledge Serovar is never used in the description of blood or tissue cell surface antigens.PB666 ^yap 02:59, 5 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

First impressions[edit]

1) This article doesn't appear to mention single pathogen strains that have multiple antibody attachment sites. Perhaps worth elaborating on this so that the reader doesn't get the mistaken impression that 1 pathogen = 1 antibody attachment site. Also, is a single pathogen strain with X, Y, and Z attachment sites one serotype or 3 serotypes? 2) This article uses salmonella a lot as an example, which has thousands of serotypes. Suggest adding some examples of pathogens that have a low number of serotypes too. Could even add a table with a list of common pathogens, and their number of known serotypes. 3) Might want to talk about vaccines more. This article mentions the word "vaccine" zero times. Does a typical vaccine target a lot of antibody attachment sites or few? Does a typical vaccine target a lot of serotypes or few? Ping Shibbolethink, this low traffic article might benefit from some expert attention. –Novem Linguae (talk) 19:02, 24 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Novem Linguae, Yes i would like to look at this when I get a chance as well.

Off the top of my head, though, I can answer some of these questions. Definitely need MEDRSes, but I'll just give you a quick summary.

A vaccine usually targets many many attachment sites (called "epitopes") and thus induces a "polyclonal" immune response, meaning B cells of many different sequences producing antibodies which will have many different epitopes.

Interestingly, it usually boils down to just 2 or 3 dominant clones that produce like 20-30% of the antibodies made, and then a bunch of minority clones which are in the background. But that's a really technical thing that's still under active investigation.

A typical "monovalent" vaccine (meaning made from one strain/serotype) will encourage antibodies only against that serotype.

However, there are many types of "polyvalent" vaccines. The typical annual flu vaccine is either "quadrivalent" or "trivalent." These typically don't just target more than one serotype, they often target other species as well. Like both Influenza A and B viruses. Usually it's 2-3 x A strains and 1 x B strain. There's also the case of the Universal flu vaccine candidates, which are polyvalent but usually genetically engineered in some way, to encourage response across even more serotypes/strains than they contain. It's a neat trick that it would probably take me an hour to explain. Here's a review from my old boss that might help (Figure 3 especially) [1].

As I said, would love to contribute here as well. I'm unfortunately heading into my surgery rotation and so will be almost entirely offline for about 8 weeks! But after that, it's on my list :) — Shibbolethink ^(♔ ^♕) 16:04, 26 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]