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epitope

American

[ep-i-tohp] / ˈɛp ɪˌtoʊp /

noun

Immunology.

determinant.

epitope British

/ ˈɛpɪˌtəʊp /

noun

the site on an antigen at which a specific antibody becomes attached

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of epitope

epi- + -tope, from Greek tópos “place”; cf. topo-

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

epitope

While Fas plays an essential role in regulating immune cells, Tushir-Singh and his colleagues knew they might be able to target cancer cells selectively if they found the right epitope.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 23, 2023

The word "epitope" means the substance that the immune system recognizes and protects against.

From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2022

Note that recognition occurs at a specific epitope rather than on the entire antigen; for this reason, epitopes are known as “antigenic determinants.”

From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022

This mAb, derived from B cells of a patient who recovered from SARS-1 in 2003, targets an epitope on the S protein that is conserved in the sarbecovirus family.

From Scientific American ● Jan. 6, 2022

B cells respond most strongly when each arm attaches to a different epitope.

From Science Magazine ● Apr. 15, 2021

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023