Why can't an antibiotic be prepared from a carrier?

1 Answer
Feb 14, 2015

It sounds like a neat idea but antibiotics are either made from a substance made by an organism as a defensive mechanism against a "predator" or it is made in the lab to do the same thing.

They prevent and even destroy organisms that we see as harmful to us or to animals that we use as pets or livestock.

What you are asking about is something that we do use but we call it artificial passive immunity or "borrowed" immunity.

We can use antibodies that are borrowed from one person to safeguard another person against a disease.

Passive immunity is typically short lived (compared to active immunity).

Since this type of artificial immunity is only temporary, it requires the repeated administration of serum containing the antibodies.

This type of immunity is not commonly practiced because of the risk that could lead to kidney failure from such repeated administration of complex proteins.

The other type is natural passive immunity where an breastfeed infant receives mother's antibodies but they only last for about six months.

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