Antibody-Produced Ozone Found in Humans

Researchers have found that antibodies bound to human neutrophils are the source of antimicrobial ozone, which is generated by the antibodies from singlet oxygen produced by the neutrophils. Their findings were published February 24, 2003, in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Prior reports from a research group at the The Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, CA, USA) had established that antibodies were able to produce ozone and other chemical oxidants from the reactive singlet form of oxygen, and that the oxidants produced by antibodies could destroy bacteria by punching holes in their cell walls.

In the current study, the investigators showed that the likely source of singlet oxygen was white blood cell neutrophils. Studying antibody binding to neutrophils, they found that the process was independent of surface antibody concentration down to 50% of the resting concentration, suggesting that surface IgG was highly efficient at intercepting the neutrophil-generated singlet oxygen. Antibody binding enhanced the antibacterial effect of the neutrophils. In addition to killing the bacteria themselves, the neutrophils provided singlet oxygen to the antibodies, which augmented the effect of the neutrophils by converting the singlet oxygen into ozone.

"It is a tremendously efficient chemical and biological process,” explained senior author Dr. Paul Wentworth, associate professor of chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute. "The presence of ozone in the human body may be linked to inflammation, and therefore this work may have tremendous ramifications for treating inflammatory diseases.”




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