Library / English Dictionary

ANTIGEN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any substance (as a toxin or enzyme) that stimulates an immune response in the body (especially the production of antibodies)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("antigen" is a kind of...):

substance (a particular kind or species of matter with uniform properties)

Meronyms (parts of "antigen"):

antigenic determinant; determinant; epitope (the site on the surface of an antigen molecule to which an antibody attaches itself)

Domain category:

immunology (the branch of medical science that studies the body's immune system)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "antigen"):

immunizing agent; immunogen (any substance or organism that provokes an immune response (produces immunity) when introduced into the body)

agglutinogen (any substance that acts as an antigen to cause agglutinin production)

fetoprotein; foetoprotein (any of several antigens that occur naturally in the fetus and sometimes in adults with cancer)

anatoxin; toxoid (a bacterial toxin that has been weakened until it is no longer toxic but is strong enough to induce the formation of antibodies and immunity to the specific disease caused by the toxin)

Rh; Rh factor; rhesus factor (a blood group antigen possessed by Rh-positive people; if an Rh-negative person receives a blood transfusion from an Rh-positive person it can result in hemolysis and anemia)

Derivation:

antigenic (of or relating to antigens)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Melanoma-associated antigen C2 (373 aa, ~41 kDa) is encoded by the human MAGEC2 gene.

(Melanoma-Associated Antigen C2, NCI Thesaurus)

Melanoma-associated antigen D1 (778 aa, ~86 kDa) is encoded by the human MAGED1 gene.

(Melanoma-Associated Antigen D1, NCI Thesaurus)

Upon administration, the MELITAC 12.1 peptide vaccine may stimulate the host immune system to mount a cytotoxic T-cell response against tumor cells expressing the melanoma peptide antigens, resulting in tumor cell lysis.

(MELITAC 12.1 Peptide Vaccine, NCI Thesaurus)

Melanoma-associated antigen B2 (319 aa, ~35 kDa) is encoded by the human MAGEB2 gene.

(Melanoma-Associated Antigen B2, NCI Thesaurus)

Melanoma-associated antigen B18 (343 aa, ~39 kDa) is encoded by the human MAGEB18 gene.

(Melanoma-Associated Antigen B18, NCI Thesaurus)

Also called MART-1 antigen and Melan-A protein.

(Melanoma Antigen Recognized by T cells 1, NCI Dictionary)

Melanoma antigen recognized by T-cells 1 (118 aa, ~13 kDa) is encoded by the human MLANA gene.

(Melanoma Antigen Recognized by T-Cells 1, NCI Thesaurus)

Vaccination with this agent may stimulate a host cytotoxic T-cell response against tumor cells expressing melanoma-associated antigens, resulting in tumor cell lysis.

(Melanoma Helper Peptide Vaccine, NCI Thesaurus)

However, the killing exhibited by the cell is nonspecific and the cell does not require antigen/MHC recognition on the target cell.

(Activated Natural Killer Cell, NCI Thesaurus)

Dendritic cells are isolated from the patient’s blood, engineered to express antigens from the tumor, and then injected back into the patient as a vaccine.

(Boosting Immunotherapy Against Brain Cancer, NIH)