Antigenicity

Antigenicity is the ability of a chemical structure (referred to as an Antigen) to bind specifically with certain products of adaptive immunity: T cell receptors or Antibodies (a.k.a. B cell receptors). Antigenicity was more commonly used in the past to refer to what is now known as immunogenicity, and the two are still often used interchangeably. However, strictly speaking, immunogenicity refers to the ability of an antigen to induce an adaptive immune response. Thus an antigen might bind specifically to a T or B cell receptor, but not induce an adaptive immune response. If the antigen does induce a response, it is an 'immunogenic antigen', which is referred to as an immunogen.

References

• Atlas of Immunology, 2nd edition, Cruse Lewis et al., 2004, CRC Press.