Monoclonal antibodies

• Monoclonal antibody

  Antibodies produced from a single clone of hybridoma cells
• Production of monoclonal antibodies

  1. Inject mouse with antigen

  2. Collect lymphocytes from mouse

  3. Fuse lymphocyte with tumor cell to form hybridoma

  4. Select single hybridoma cell producing desired antibody

  5. Allow hybridoma cell to divide by mitosis to form clone
• Monoclonal antibodies

  • Specific to one binding site on one protein antigen
  • Can target specific chemicals or cells in the body
• Monoclonal antibodies have a large number of uses
• Monoclonal antibodies

  Produced from a single clone of identical hybridoma cells, specific to a single binding site on one protein antigen
• Monoclonal antibodies

  • Can be produced against any antigen that we want
  • Extremely useful in medicine
• Uses of monoclonal antibodies

  • Diagnosis (e.g. pregnancy testing)
  • Measuring hormone levels in blood
  • Detecting pathogens in blood
  • Locating/identifying specific molecules in cells/tissues
  • Treating diseases (e.g. cancer)
• Pregnancy testing using monoclonal antibodies

  1. Detect a specific hormone produced by the placenta

  2. Woman urinates on test strip and looks for reaction

  3. Test is cheap, easy to use, and highly accurate
• Measuring hormone levels in blood using monoclonal antibodies

  1. Take blood sample

  2. Test for hormone levels
• Advantages of using monoclonal antibodies

  • Completely specific to what we're looking for
  • Deliver radioactive substance or toxic drug specifically to cancer cells without harming other cells
• Some drug trials using monoclonal antibodies have found harmful side effects
• Only a few drugs in use based on monoclonal antibodies currently, but likely to increase in the future
• New medicines


  Medicines that are being developed all the time and need to be extensively tested
• Sources of new medicines

  • Extracted from plants
  • Extracted from microorganisms
  • Synthesized by chemists working for pharmaceutical companies
• Drug testing process

  1. Preclinical testing on cells, tissues or live animals

  2. Clinical testing on healthy volunteers to check safety

  3. Clinical testing to find optimal dose to treat disease with fewest side-effects
• Placebo

  A tablet or injection with no active drug in it
• Double-blind trial

  Test group receives active drug, control group receives dummy drug, neither patients nor doctors know who is receiving what
• Double-blind trials are used to stop bias in case doctors pay closer attention to people receiving the active drug
• Monoclonal antibodies

  Produced from a single clone of identical hybridoma cells, specific to a single binding site on one protein antigen
• Monoclonal antibodies

  • Can be produced against any antigen that we want
  • Extremely useful in medicine
• Uses of monoclonal antibodies

  • Diagnosis (e.g. pregnancy testing)
  • Measuring hormone levels in blood
  • Detecting pathogens in blood
  • Locating/identifying specific molecules in cells/tissues
  • Treating diseases (e.g. cancer)
• Pregnancy testing using monoclonal antibodies

  1. Detect a specific hormone produced by the placenta

  2. Woman urinates on test strip and looks for reaction

  3. Test is cheap, easy to use, and highly accurate
• Using monoclonal antibodies to measure hormone levels

  1. Take blood sample

  2. Test for hormone levels using monoclonal antibodies
• Using monoclonal antibodies to detect pathogens

  Monoclonal antibodies are completely specific to what we're looking for
• Using monoclonal antibodies to locate/identify molecules in cells

  1. Attach monoclonal antibodies to fluorescent dyes

  2. Antibodies stick to specific molecules within the cell

  3. Allows us to see the locations
• Using monoclonal antibodies to treat diseases (e.g. cancer)

  1. Make antibodies specific to cancer cells

  2. Attach radioactive substance or toxic drug to the antibody

  3. Inject antibody into blood, it attaches to cancer cells

  4. Radioactive substance or toxic drug stops cancer cells from growing and dividing
• There is a problem with certain drug trials using monoclonal antibodies - they've been found to produce very harmful side effects
• At the moment there are only a few drugs in use based on monoclonal antibodies, but this is likely to increase in the future
• How does a preganacy test work:

  1. urine travels up the reaction zone
  2. HCG hormone will bind to the mobile antiobodies in the reaction zones
  3. HCG moves up the strip + binds to the immobile antibodies in the results window
  4. any antibodies that did not bind to HCG will bind to the immobile antibodies in the control window
  5. a blue dye will appear in the result window and control window if it has worked