Some Terms - Clarification of Terms (Aug/26/2005 )

Hi there,

I'm not a student of biology by any means but I've recently become interested in reading about monoclonal antibodies. But I'm still confused by a lot of the terminology.

I have a couple of questions:

1. What is a predilute?
2. What do the different levels of predilte indicate (i.e., level II predilute, level V predilute, etc.,)?


Also, I am confused by the term "reactivity". I've read about "mouse monoclonal antibodies" and also seen the term "mouse anti-human monoclonal antibodies", and in both cases the "reactivity" was described as "human".

3. Does the reactivity indicate that the antibody can operate in the human immune system?
4. Are "mouse monoclonal antibodies" and "mouse anti-human monoclonal antibodies" synonymous?

I hope these aren't stupid questions.

Thanks in advance.

Hi

I don't know about the predilute stuff, but the rest I can help with...

Mouse monoclonal antibodies are antibodies raised in a mouse that are specific for a particular immunotype. For instance mouse anti-human antibodies are raised against human proteins, and wiill bind to them, but not necessarily to rat or cow proteins for example. Typically antibodies are not used in living systems, only in the lab for western blotting or other proceedures. If you are investigating a specific protein in, for example, a goat, you would need to find an antibody (either polyclonal or monoclonal) that is specific for the protein you are looking at. For this you could use a mouse anti-goat antibody, but it might not be a good idea to use a sheep anti-goat antibody as they are closely related, and so there might be some cross reactivity with other proteins that happened to be in the sheep's system when the antibody was raised.

So to answer your questions...

"3. Does the reactivity indicate that the antibody can operate in the human immune system?"

No, it means that it will react with human proteins

"4. Are "mouse monoclonal antibodies" and "mouse anti-human monoclonal antibodies" synonymous?"

No, mouse antibodies can be raised against any number of species, I have useed mouse anti-rabbit, anti-goat, anti-human and anti-sheep, antibodes, though not all of these were monoclonal.

Hope this clarified some things.

Bob

Thanks for responding. You've clarified several key things for me.

One thing, though. I was under the impression it is possible to use monoclonal antibodies in living systems and that these tests/experiments are frequently conducted. I've read studies about certain antibodies being raised against given proteins and then being used in vaccines tested on mice.

Commercial monoclonal antibodies are available, not to mention in forms that are conducive to introducing them into living systems (liquids, injectable I presume).

Antibodies can be used in living systems for a number of different outcomes. There are currently monoclonal antibodied in use in cancer therapy that block growth factor receptors. Antibodies for use in humans are often "humanised" first by genetic engineering.