Antisera

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A substance rich in antibodies obtained from the blood is utilized for therapeutic purposes to combat infections or toxins
2. An immune-derived liquid containing specific antibodies helps in preventing or mitigating diseases caused by pathogens
3. A fluid from blood plasma that contains antibodies used to confer passive immunity against specific infections or toxins

Etymology: "Antisera" is the plural of "antiserum", a compound built from the Greek prefix "anti-", meaning "against", and the Latin "serum", meaning whey or the clear fluid left after blood clots. The Greek prefix had long been used in English, but "serum" comes from Latin, where it referred to the watery part of milk that separates from curds. Joined together, the two parts describe a serum that works against something, which in this case is a specific disease or toxin in the body. The word is a plain technical coinage rather than an ancient one. Medical scientists formed it in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when researchers learned that blood serum from an animal immunized against a disease could protect other animals from that same disease. The Latin root gave them a name for the clear fluid, and the Greek prefix gave them the sense of opposition.

Synonyms: serums, vaccines