Antibody formation: stimulation by polyadenylic and polycytidylic acids.

Complexes of polyadenylic and polyuridylic acids, or of polycytidylic acid and methylated bovine serum albumin, enhance the early rate of increase in numbers of antibody-forming spleen cells in mice immunized with sheep red blood cells or other particulate antigens. Polyadenylic and polycytidylic acids, respectively, appear to be the source of the critical stimulators which, as demonstrated by others in bacteria, may act by influencing nucleotide kinase activity. The stimulated antibody response, but not the normal response, is antagonized by kinetin riboside and by an adenosine derivative occurring in sRNA.