Antigen
Antigens are "targeted" by antibodies. Each antibody is specifically produced by the immune system to match an antigen after cells in the immune system come into "contact" with it; this allows a precise identification or matching of the antigen and the initiation of a tailored response. The antibody is said to "match" the antigen in the sense that it can bind to it due to an adaptation in a region of the antibody; because of this, many different antibodies are produced, each able to bind a different antigen while sharing the same basic structure. In most cases, an adapted antibody can only react to and bind one specific antigen; in some instances, however, antibodies may cross-react and bind more than one antigen.
Antigen
Paul Ehrlich coined the term antibody (in German "Antikörper") in his side-chain theory at the end of the 19th century. In 1899, Ladislas Deutsch (Laszlo Detre) (1874–1939) named the hypothetical substances halfway between bacterial constituents and antibodies "substances immunogenes ou antigenes" (antigenic or immunogenic substances). He originally believed those substances to be precursors of antibodies, just as zymogen is a precursor of an enzyme. But, by 1903, he understood that an antigen induces the production of immune bodies (antibodies) and wrote that the word "antigen" is a contraction of antisomatogen ("Immunkörperbildner"). The "Oxford English Dictionary" indicates that the logical construction should be "anti(body)-gen".Antigen presenting cells present antigens in the form of peptides on histocompatibility molecules. The T cell selectively recognize the antigens; depending on the antigen and the type of the histocompatibility molecule, different types of T cells will be activated. For T Cell Receptor (TCR) recognition, the peptide must be processed into small fragments inside the cell and presented by a major histocompatibility complex (MHC). The antigen cannot elicit the immune response without the help of an immunologic adjuvant. Similarly, the adjuvant component of vaccines plays an essential role in the activation of the innate immune system.