Medical aspects

For peptide aptamers to be implementable in diagnostics and therapy, some challenges have to be accomodated. Antibodies comprise a dangerous threat for microorganisms displaying pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). PAMPs are recognized by the antibodies Fab-region and induces an immune response through the Fc-region, that binds effector cells of the immune system. The effector mechanisms include opsonisation OpsonisationOpson originates from Greek, where it referrers to a delicious side-dish. In this context it means that antibodies mark pathogens, making them more applicable for phagocytes (neutrophils and macrophages), Agglutination agglutinationagglutinare is Latin and means "to glue". In the immune response it means that the antibodies bind multiple antigens, creating a cluster which is easier for the phagocytes to process in one portion, haemolysis, complement activation and mast cell degranulation, and neutralization.