Researchers have discovered new information about how the body’s immune system works, simultaneously calling into question decades of understanding about the process of antibody-mediated immunity and opening the door for advancements in immunological treatment.

B cells, a type of white blood cell, drive the body’s antibody-mediated immunity, creating antibodies that bind to pathogens or foreign substances and neutralizing them. B cells can also produce harmful antibodies that attack normal tissue, causing allergic reactions and autoimmune diseases.

Antibodies are made in response to antigens, markers that tell your immune system when something foreign – bacteria, a virus, or vaccination – is present in your body. The antibodies recognize and attack harmful antigens, but they are particular. Antibodies are like a key, and an antigen is a lock; antibodies will only unlock specific antigens.

Embedded in the B cell’s surface is a B-cell receptor (BCR), a protein that stands guard, ready to bind with antigens. For decades, scientists and researchers thought an antigen would cross-bind with several BCRs, grouping signal molecules together and transmitting the signal into the cell, which attracted help from T cells to destroy the invader.

The illustration below shows two antigens (light blue spheres) bound to a cluster of BCRs (purple, Y-shaped structures) on the cell’s surface. The dark blue and black shapes represent signal molecules transmitting the signal into the cell (lightning bolt).

But researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark, in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute in Munich, have turned