Biomaterial Database

Speaking personally: monoclonal antibodies as diagnostic reagents. 1985

H Zola

It is 10 years since Kohler & Milstein published the first paper describing the laboratory production of a monoclonal antibody. In those 10 yr monoclonal antibodies have caused a revolution in Immunology and in some branches of Pathology. After a surprisingly slow initial reaction, the scientific community has embraced the new technique enthusiastically, indeed overenthusiastically. Inevitably, excessive enthusiasm was followed by disappointment. There can be no doubt that monoclonal antibodies provide opportunities for major improvements in diagnostic specificity and resolving power. It is equally clear that monoclonal antibodies do not solve all analytical problems, and have a few problems of their very own. This brief review presents one man's assessment of the place of monoclonal antibodies as diagnostic reagents and discusses the properties of the antibodies and the parameters of the assay which most influence the successful use of diagnostic tests based on monoclonal antibodies.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D009369	Neoplasms	New abnormal growth of tissue. Malignant neoplasms show a greater degree of anaplasia and have the properties of invasion and metastasis, compared to benign neoplasms.	Benign Neoplasm,Cancer,Malignant Neoplasm,Tumor,Tumors,Benign Neoplasms,Malignancy,Malignant Neoplasms,Neoplasia,Neoplasm,Neoplasms, Benign,Cancers,Malignancies,Neoplasias,Neoplasm, Benign,Neoplasm, Malignant,Neoplasms, Malignant
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000911	Antibodies, Monoclonal	Antibodies produced by a single clone of cells.	Monoclonal Antibodies,Monoclonal Antibody,Antibody, Monoclonal
D000915	Antibody Affinity	A measure of the binding strength between antibody and a simple hapten or antigen determinant. It depends on the closeness of stereochemical fit between antibody combining sites and antigen determinants, on the size of the area of contact between them, and on the distribution of charged and hydrophobic groups. It includes the concept of "avidity," which refers to the strength of the antigen-antibody bond after formation of reversible complexes.	Affinity, Antibody,Antibody Avidity,Avidity, Antibody,Affinities, Antibody,Antibody Affinities,Antibody Avidities,Avidities, Antibody
D000918	Antibody Specificity	The property of antibodies which enables them to react with some ANTIGENIC DETERMINANTS and not with others. Specificity is dependent on chemical composition, physical forces, and molecular structure at the binding site.	Antibody Specificities,Specificities, Antibody,Specificity, Antibody
D000939	Epitopes	Sites on an antigen that interact with specific antibodies.	Antigenic Determinant,Antigenic Determinants,Antigenic Specificity,Epitope,Determinant, Antigenic,Determinants, Antigenic,Specificity, Antigenic
D000951	Antigens, Neoplasm	Proteins, glycoprotein, or lipoprotein moieties on surfaces of tumor cells that are usually identified by monoclonal antibodies. Many of these are of either embryonic or viral origin.	Neoplasm Antigens,Tumor Antigen,Tumor Antigens,Antigen, Tumor,Antigens, Tumor