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dijc89 t1_j8wt3pb wrote

Somatic recombination in b-cells and t-cells is essentially a numbers game, leading to a variety of b-cell receptors and consequently antibodies. When one of those b-cells recognizes an epitope which belongs to a pathogen, it's pure coincidence, and only after that the clonal expansion and antibody production of this specific cell is initiated.

That's why the search for neutralizing antibodies for SARS-COV-2 still continues, because new types of neutralizing antibodies are still found in patient sera, which might be more potent in preventing severe disease.

To answer briefly: The chance that two people produce the same antibody (ies) is non-zero but rather low. How effective in neutralizing an antibody is depends on a lot of things, pure chance being the most important.

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SleepyHobo t1_j8yglwk wrote

How does this work for immunoglobulins such as in the case of rabbies then? Do they just study which antibodies are the best and only collect those from the people that have them?

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Seditioussov t1_j8yaojr wrote

Then what about Monoclonal Antibodies? I realize those are synthesized, but super effective...

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Freethecrafts t1_j8yf0ti wrote

Paragraph two goes into different types. Monoclonal antibodies is marketing.

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dijc89 t1_j8yh7k0 wrote

What about them? The basis of those synthesized (and modified) mABs is still convalescent patient serum, from which those (unmodified) antibodies have been extracted and studied.

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