EBV antibodies are directed against (a) EBNA, (b) early antigen (EA), (c) the membrane antigen (MA) expressed on the surface of cells late in the lytic cycle, and (d) the viral capsid antigen (VCA) expressed within cells late in the lytic cycle.
To summarize – an antigen is a disease agent (virus, toxin, bacterium parasite, fungus, chemical, etc) that the body needs to remove, and an antibody is a protein that binds to the antigen to allow our immune system to identify and deal with it.
