Research about antibody specificity spectra was conducted to develop single-specific antibodies or broad-specific antibodies. Aflatoxins, as one class of high-toxicity mycotoxins, were selected as the research targets to investigate the effect of the immunogen dose on antibody specificity spectra. For this aim, 16 monoclonal antibodies were induced by low or high doses of aflatoxin B₁-BSA, and 34 monoclonal antibodies were induced by low or high doses of aflatoxin M₁-BSA. The specificities of the antibodies induced, whether by aflatoxin B₁ conjugate or aflatoxin M₁ conjugate, indicated that the low dose of the immunogen induced a narrow spectrum of antibody specificity, while the high dose of the immunogen showed an advantage to form a broad spectrum of antibody specificity. Therefore, this report provides important information for the development of new antibodies against small molecules like aflatoxins.
Keywords: aflatoxin; antibodies; dose of immuogen; specificity spectrums.