Antibodies

Antibodies are specialized, Y-shaped proteins that bind like a lock-and-key to the body's foreign invaders — whether they are viruses, bacteria, fungi or parasites. They are the "search" battalion of the immune system's search-and-destroy system, tasked with finding an enemy and marking it for destruction.

"They're released from the cell and they go out and hunt," said Dr. Warner Greene,
the director of the Center for HIV Cure Research at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco.

When antibodies find their target, they bind to it, which then triggers a cascade of actions that vanquish the invader. Antibodies are part of the so-called "adaptive" immune system, the arm of the immune system that learns to recognize and eliminate specific pathogens, Greene said.