Question

Define antisera

Answer 1

Antisera is an amber-colored, protein-rich substance that separates when coagulation takes place in the blood and has an immunoglobulin. Immunoglobulin is a protein used by the immune system to neutralize pathogens such as pathogenic bacteria and viruses, generated primarily by plasma cells.

Complete step by step answer:
After an infection or immunization, sera with elevated antibody levels is referred to as immune sera or antisera. Antiserum is a serum of human or non-human blood with polyclonal or monoclonal antibodies used to transfer passive immunity to certain diseases by blood donation (plasmapheresis).
For example, convalescent serum, a passive transfusion of antibodies from a previous human survivor, was the only known successful treatment with a high success rate for Ebola infection in 7 of the 8 surviving patients.
The infectious agent or antigen is bound by the antibodies in the antiserum. Then the immune system recognizes foreign antibodies-bound agents and activates a more robust immune response.
The use of antiserum is especially effective against pathogens that, in their unstimulated state, are capable of evading the immune system but are not robust enough to escape the stimulated immune system.
The presence of the agent's antibodies depends on an initial survivor whose immune system has, by chance, found a pathogen counteragent or a host species that carries the pathogen but does not suffer its effects. From the original donor or from a donor organism that is inoculated with the pathogen and cured by a certain stock of pre-existing antiserum, more stocks of antiserum can then be produced. To provide passive immunity to snake venom itself, diluted snake venom is also used as an antiserum.

Note: Serum therapy, also referred to as serotherapy, describes the treatment of infectious diseases by means of serum treatment of animals immunized against specific pathogens, or products thereof, to which the disease is allegedly referred. In diagnostic virology laboratories, antisera are used widely. In humans, the most common use of antiserum to treat envenomation is as an antitoxin or antivenom.