Monoclonal antibodies are also known as the mAb or moAb are monospecific antibodies. These are all the same and are created by a single type of immune cell that are all clones of the unique parent cell. Given almost any kind of substance, monoclonal antibodies can be created and mainly bind to the substance. They can serve then to detect or to purify the substance. This has now become a vital tool in the biochemistry, the molecular biology and the medicine. When being used as a medication, the non-proprietary name of this drug ends in –mab. Once the monoclonal antibodies for the given substance are produced, then they can be utilized to help detect the presence of the substance. The Western blot test and the immuno dot blot tests help detect the existence of the protein on the membrane. They are useful in immunohistochemistry wherein they detect the antigen in the fixed tissue sections and the immunofluorescence test which help to detect the substance in the frozen tissue section or in the live cells.
One of the possible treatments for cancer also involves the monoclonal antibodies which bind themselves only to the cancer cell-specific antigens. They thus induce the immunological response that is against the main target cancer cell. Such mAb can also be modified for the delivery of the toxin, the radioisotope, the cytokine or the other active conjugate. It is possible also to design the bispecific antibodies which can bind with the Fab regions. This is both to target the antigen and to conjugate the effector cell. In actuality every intact antibody will bind to the cell receptors or the other proteins with the Fc region. Some of MAbs that have been approved by the FDA are Bevacizumab, Cetuximab , Panitumumab , and the like.
One problem in the medical applications is the standard procedure for producing monoclonal antibodies that yields mouse antibodies. Although the murine antibodies are very similar to the human ones, there exist differences. The human immune system thus recognizes the mouse antibodies as the foreign substance, thus rapidly removing it from circulation and causing some systemic inflammatory effects. Such responses can be recognized as producing the HACA or the Human Anti-Chimeric antibody antibodies or the HAMA or Human Anti-Mouse antibodies.
Ever since it has been discovered that the monoclonal antibodies can be generated in-vitro, some scientists have been targeting the creation of the ‘fully’ human antibodies to thus avoid some of the main side effects of the humanized and the chimeric antibodies.