Description
A hapten is a small molecule that can elicit an immune response only when conjugated with a large carrier such as a protein.
Typical haptens include drugs, urushiol, quinone, steroids, etc.
Peptides and non-protein antigens usually need conjugating to a carrier protein (such as BSA (bovine serum albumin) or KLH (keyhole limpet hemocyanin) to become good immunogens).
Additionally, haptens should be administered with an adjuvant to ensure a high quality immune response.
It is important that the hapten design (preserving greatly the chemical structure and spatial conformation of target compound), selection of the appropriate carrier protein and the conjugation method are key conditions for the desired specificity anti-hapten antibodies.
We design anti-hapten antibodies based on the HaptenDB information