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I know that blood contains white blood cells (which attack pathogens). Suppose we take half a liter of blood out of the body and implant the virus into it. Can the white blood cells in that half a liter of blood attack the virus and make antibodies?

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  • Creation of antibodies is a somewhat complex process that involves various cells and tissues, not just a bucket of blood, see here for more information: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibody
    – Thomas
    Apr 26, 2020 at 21:44
  • I think the question is ambiguous: Blood (more specifically: the blood serum) which contains antibodies "has immunity" (the question title). Whether blood without the remaining organism can produce antibodies and hence obtain immunity is a different question to which the answer is probably "no". Apr 27, 2020 at 12:10

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The usual approach is to use a whole animal such as horses

The results of our research indicate that healthy horses immunized with the SARS-CoV F69 strain can be induced to generate effective, specific and neutralizing antibodies

and to prevent anaphylaxis

Heterogenous antisera used for treatment possibly result in anaphylactoid severe acute side-effects[28]. To avoid the side-effects caused by horse antiserum, IgG against SARS-CoV was digested with pepsin and purified with anion-exchange separations to exclude the immunogenicity of Fc fragments and to retain the special activity of binding the antigen of F(ab')2 fraction. The titers of neutralizing F(ab')2 against SARS-CoV was detected at higher level (1:5120). And approximately 15 g F(ab')2 fragments were obtained from 1 litre antiserum, with the purity above 90%.

https://www.nature.com/articles/aps2005215.pdf

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