Abstract
The ability to produce and exploit monoclonal antibodies mAbs has revolutionized many areas of biological sciences. The unique property of an mAb is that it is a single species of immunoglobulin (IG) molecule. This means that the specificity of the interaction of the paratopes on the IG, with the epitopes on an antigenic target is the same on every molecule. This property can be used to great benefit in immunoassays to provide tests of defined specificity and sensitivity, which improve the possibilities of standardization. The performance of assays can often be determined relating the actual weight of antibody (hence the number of molecules) to activity. Often the production of an mAb against a specific epitope is the only way that biological entities can be differentiated. This chapter outlines the areas involving development of assays based on mAbs. The problems involved address the physical aspects of mAbs and how they may affect assay design and also the implications of results based on monospecific reagents. Often these are not fully understood, leading to assays that are less than satisfactory, which does not justify the relatively high cost of preparing and screening of mAbs.
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Crowther, J.R. (2001). Monoclonal Antibodies. In: The Elisa Guidebook. Methods in Molecular Biology™, vol 149. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-049-7:233
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-049-7:233
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