Adapting antibodies for clinical use

Techniques for antibody engineering are now overcoming the problems that have prevented monoclonal antibodies being used routinely in clinical practice. With chemical and genetic manipulation antibodies can be linked to bacterial toxins, enzymes, radionuclides, or cytotoxic drugs, allowing targeting of treatment. Antigen binding sites from antibodies raised in mice can be joined with human IgG to reduce immunogenicity. In vitro gene amplification and genetic engineering of bacteriophage have produced large antibody gene libraries and facilitated large scale production of human monoclonal antibodies with high specificity. The trickle of monoclonal antibodies into clinical practice may soon become a flood.