A Mathematical and Experimental Study of the Kinetics of Neutralization of Bacteriophage øX 174 by Antibodies

[摘要] The kinetics of the in vitro neutralization of φX 174 by guinea pig antibody has been studied under dilute conditions. A mathematical model comprising a system of n differential equations has been constructed to represent this reaction. To account for the behavior of reaction samples in a bioassay, the model includes an infectivity function for the phage-antibody complexes. Experimental results show that dissociation can be neglected in the in vitro reaction. The model explains discrepancies such as departure from first-order kinetics that appear when a neutralization reaction is studied by “direct plating” and “decision tube” methods. Proceeding logically from the model, a new antibody assay, “complex inactivation (CI)” is described. Results from this assay support the model and suggest a more sensitive antibody detection system. Using the CI assay, phage neutralization experiments showed that over 99% of φX exhibit homogeneity in their association activity

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）