Chemistry

Immunochemistry (IC) provides the basis of molecular mechanisms associated with immune system functions as it relates to the nature of antibodies, antigens and their interactions. Immunochemistry involves the study of the properties, functions, interactions and production of the antibodies/immunoglobulins, toxin, epitopes of proteins like CD4, antitoxins, cytokines/chemokines, antigens of the immune system, immune responses and determination of immune materials by immunochemical assays.

The various methods in immunochemistry have been refined and used in scientific study, from virology to molecular evolution. The detection of Syphilis by Wasserman test provided the diagnostic use of IC in infectious diseases. In immunochemistry, antibody titer and dilutions as well as incubation time, temperature and pre-treatment of tissue samples are tightly interwoven in their effect on staining quality. These factors can be changed independently, or as is more often the case, in complementary fashion to bring about positive differences. The predominant goal of an immunochemical staining is to achieve optimal specific staining accompanied by minimal interference from background staining.