Monoclonal Antibodies: Therapeutic Uses

Heddy Zola, Child Health Research Institute, Adelaide, Australia

Published online: September 2005

DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0004018

Monoclonal antibodies are biological products made in the laboratory. They use the ability of the immune system to make specific high-affinity reagents to bind to almost any molecular structure. In recent years, the therapeutic applications of monoclonal antibodies have developed rapidly, and they currently form the fastest growing sector of the biotherapeutics industry.

Keywords: antibody; monoclonal; therapy; cancer; transplantation

Figure 1. Whole antibody and fragments retaining the antigen-binding site.
Figure 2. (a) Murine antibody; (b) chimaeric antibody (human C domains, murine V domains); (c) humanized antibody (murine complementarity-determining regions on a human framework); and (d) completely human antibody.
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 References
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    Souriau C and Hudson PJ (2003) Recombinant antibodies for cancer diagnosis and therapy. Expert Opinion in Biological Therapy 3: 305–318.
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    Scott AM and Welt S (1997) Antibody-based immunological therapies. Current Opinion in Immunology 9: 717–722.
    Waldmann TA and O'Shea J (1998) The use of antibodies against the IL-2 receptor in transplantation. Current Opinion in Immunology 10: 507–512.
    Winter G and Milstein C (1991) Man-made antibodies. Nature 349: 293–299.
    Winter G, Grifiths AD, Hawkins RE and Hoogenboom HR (1994) Making antibodies by phage display. Annual Reviews in Immunology 12: 433–455.

Related Sub-Topics:

Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Methods | Antibodies
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Article Title: Monoclonal Antibodies: Therapeutic Uses
 
How to Cite close
Zola, Heddy(Sep 2005) Monoclonal Antibodies: Therapeutic Uses. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1038/npg.els.0004018]