The Fab portion of the antibodies made against epitopes of adherence structures such as cell wall adhesins bind and block the bacteria from adhering to receptors on the host cell membrane. As a result, the bacteria are unable to colonize and may be flushed away.

Flash animation illustrating Antibodies Blocking Bacterial Adherence to Host Cells.swf by Gary E. Kaiser, Ph.D.
Professor of Microbiology, The Community College of Baltimore County, Catonsville Campus
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://faculty.ccbcmd.edu/~gkaiser/index.html.

Last updated: August, 2018
Please send comments and inquiries to Dr. Gary Kaiser