Monoclonal antibodies: harnessing the potential.
Antibody molecules help fulfil the mandate of the mammalian immune system to discriminate between the body's own proteins and the foreign antigens of infectious agents. The exquisite specificity they exhibit for their target molecules has lent itself to exploitation both in the laboratory and clinical medicine. Nevertheless, the early reliance on polyclonal antisera as a source of antibodies, has highlighted problems of homogeneity and reproducibility between immunizations. The advent of monoclonal antibodies displaying a single predefined specificity has, therefore, revolutionised many areas of the biomedical sciences. Eighteen years after their first description, it is, however, pertinent to ask whether monoclonal antibodies have yet fulfilled their true potential.
University Department of Pathology, Cambridge, U.K.
R M
RM
Smith
P J
PJ
Fairchild
D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000276:immunology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal