Word: antigen
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...such surprises are likely to be in store for Dole. The tumor that was removed four years ago, along with the majority leader's prostate, was small and had not spread. Every six months since then Dole has undergone a highly sensitive test for a protein called prostate-specific antigen, or PSA. This substance can act like an early-warning device, alerting physicians to the presence or recurrence of the cancer...
...antigen functions by binding to a fragment of a foreign molecule--in the study, a fragment of the flu virus--and alerting nearby T cells of its presence...
Some of the newest techniques actually require no virus, either dead or alive, at all. Scientists simply take advantage of the antigens themselves, injected free of their dangerous viral carriers, to provoke an immune response. When a given antigen shows up again, this time on a virus, it's as if the immune system has already seen the whole virus...
...Associate Professor of Tropical Public Health Donald A. Harn, who works on vaccines against the tropical disease schistosomiasis, says that finding the right antigen when attempting a recombinant vaccine, as they are known, "is the most critical and difficult thing...
Harn says that one problem researchers face is that the immune system often fails to respond to such isolated antigens. Simply finding an antigen present in or on the virus is not sufficient. To boost the response, solutions known as adjuvants are included in the injection of the antigen...