Uses of Monoclonal Antibodies - Monoclonal antibodies or specific antibodies, arc now an essential tool of much biomedical research and are of great commercial and medical value. For instance, ABO blood groups could be earlier identified with the help of human sera carrying antibodies of known specificity.

These human sera in U.K. have been replaced by monoclonal antibodies produced by hybridomas, for the identification of ABO blood groups. Thus the diagnostic and screening value of the monoclonal antibodies through serological tests has been demonstrated.

Besides the use of monoclonals in identification of blood groups in UK (UK blood typing), following three uses for monoclonals are described, although, only the first two of these make a definite market at present:

For therapeutic uses, monoclonal antibodies are so designed that they will neutralize the reaction or response by one defined antigen, but still preserve the reaction of all other antigens. Several antigens of T cell receptor complex, including CD3, CD4 and CD8 have been the targets of specific antibodies for therapy.

Most widely used monoclonal antibody is OKTI, which has been licensed for clinical use, particularly for the treatment of acute renal allograft rejections. Monoclonal antibodies have also been used for treatment of patients with

(i) malignant leukemic cells,

(ii) B cell lymphomas, and

(iii) a variety of allograft rejections after transplantation.