Urine and diagnosis

• The presence of glucose in the urine is a well-known symptom of type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
• If you have muscle damage, large amounts of creatinine will show up in your urine.
• Monoclonal antibodies are antibodies from a single clone of cells that are produced to target particular cells or chemicals in the body.
• Monoclonal antibodies:

  • a mouse is injected with hCG so it makes the appropriate antibody
  • The B-cells that make the required antibody are then removed from the mouse and fused with a myeloma (a type of cancer that divides rapidly)
  • this new fused cell is known as a hybridoma
  • each hybridoma reproduces rapidly, resulting in a clone of millions of hybridomas all making the desired antibody
  • these monoclonal antibodies are collected and purified
• Pregnancy test:

  • the test contains mobile monoclonal antibodies that will only bind to hCG, they also have a very small coloured bead attached to them
  • if the woman is pregnant the hCG in her urine binds to the mobile monoclonal antibodies
  • the urine carries on along the wick until it reaches a window
  • here there are immobilised monoclonal antibodies that only bind to hCG, if the woman is pregnant a coloured line appears in the first window
  • at the second window there are immobilised antibodies that only bind to mobile antibodies, this coloured line simply indicates that the test is working