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How did Linus Pauling explain the specific reactions between antibodies and antigens?
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Linus Pauling
Theoretical physical chemist Linus Pauling, photograph by Yousuf Karsh.
Linus Pauling explained the specificity of antibody–antigen reactions by proposing that the specificity was determined by a unique folding of the antibody's polypeptide chain.1
Influenced by his interest in protein structure and his interactions with immunochemist Karl Landsteiner, Pauling theorized that the way these chains folded allowed for the precise molecular recognition required for an antibody to bind to its corresponding antigen.1