Polyreactive Antibodies: Function and Quantification.

Polyreactive antibodies, a major component of the natural antibody repertoire, bind with low affinity to a variety of structurally unrelated antigens. Many of these antibodies are germline or near germline in sequence. Little is known, however, about the function of these antibodies. In the present mini-review we show: (1) that the broad antibacterial activity of the natural antibody repertoire is largely due to polyreactive antibodies, which in the presence of complement lyse bacteria and enhance phagocytosis; (2) that polyreactive antibodies bind to UV- or human immunodeficiency virus-induced apoptotic cells and with complement enhance the phagocytosis of these cells by macrophages; and (3) that dinitrophenol can be used as a surrogate for quantitating the level of polyreactive antibodies in serum. We conclude that polyreactive antibodies protect the host against both foreign invaders and its own damaged/apoptotic cells. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Infectious Diseases Society of America 2015. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.