Human monoclonal antibodies by immortalization of memory B cells.
The administration of hyper immune sera to prevent or treat life-threatening infections is a remarkable milestone in medicine and biotechnology that has been achieved more than a century ago. Yet, the therapeutic use of monoclonal antibodies in this field has developed slowly over the last decades. Here we compare and contrast current methods to generate human monoclonal antibodies and highlight the advantages of exploiting the human antibody repertoire using a novel method that allows efficient immortalization and cloning of human memory B cells. This method, which has been successfully applied to isolate broadly neutralizing antibodies against SARS and H5N1 influenza viruses, is expected to accelerate the development of therapeutics in the field of infectious diseases not only by providing neutralizing antibodies for passive serotherapy, but also by generating relevant information for vaccine design.
Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Via Vincenzo Vela 6, CH-6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland. Lanzavecchia@irb.unisi.ch
Antonio
A
Lanzavecchia
Davide
D
Corti
Federica
F
Sallusto
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000276:immunology*; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D053124:Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype / Q000276:immunology; D018448:Models, Immunological; D045473:Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus / Q000276:immunology
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal