avidity

(noun)

the measure of the synergism of the strength individual interactions between proteins

Related Terms

  • affinity

Examples of avidity in the following topics:

  • Antibody Functions

    • The term avidity describes binding by antibody classes that are secreted as joined, multivalent structures (such as IgM and IgA).
    • Although avidity measures the strength of binding, just as affinity does, the avidity is not simply the sum of the affinities of the antibodies in a multimeric structure.
    • The avidity depends on the number of identical binding sites on the antigen being detected, as well as other physical and chemical factors.
    • Typically, multimeric antibodies, such as pentameric IgM, are classified as having lower affinity than monomeric antibodies, but high avidity.
    • (a) Affinity refers to the strength of single interactions between antigen and antibody, while avidity refers to the strength of all interactions combined.
Subjects
  • Accounting
  • Algebra
  • Art History
  • Biology
  • Business
  • Calculus
  • Chemistry
  • Communications
  • Economics
  • Finance
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Microbiology
  • Physics
  • Physiology
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Statistics
  • U.S. History
  • World History
  • Writing

Except where noted, content and user contributions on this site are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 with attribution required.