TY - JOUR
T1 - Discovery of antibodies
AU - Llewelyn, Mairion B.
AU - Hawkins, Robert E.
AU - Russell, Stephen J.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Cesar Milstein, Geoff Hale, Kerry Chester, and Greg Winter for encouragement and critical reading of the manuscript. REH is a Cancer Research Campaign senior clinical fellow and was formerly a Medical Research Council training fellow. MBL is funded jointly by MRC and Celltech, SJR is an MRC clinician scientist with additional support from Kay Kendall research foundation and Louis Jeantet foundation.
PY - 1992
Y1 - 1992
N2 - Passive immunisation has been used in clinical practice since the end of last century, mainly for prophylaxis. Success of early treatments was marred by anaphylactic reactions and serum sickness because antibodies or antitoxins were not raised in humans. Recombination of gene segments during antibody synthesis means that specific antibodies for numerous antigens can be produced from a limited gene pool. Killer lymphocytes, phagocytes, and complement then bind to the constant region of the antibody facilitating elimination of the pathogen. Development of a method of obtaining large quantities of antibodies against a specific antigen (monoclonal antibodies) offers the possibility of initiating host defence mechanisms against any unwanted antigen, though some problems still remain in preventing the body, from attacking the monoclonal antibody.
AB - Passive immunisation has been used in clinical practice since the end of last century, mainly for prophylaxis. Success of early treatments was marred by anaphylactic reactions and serum sickness because antibodies or antitoxins were not raised in humans. Recombination of gene segments during antibody synthesis means that specific antibodies for numerous antigens can be produced from a limited gene pool. Killer lymphocytes, phagocytes, and complement then bind to the constant region of the antibody facilitating elimination of the pathogen. Development of a method of obtaining large quantities of antibodies against a specific antigen (monoclonal antibodies) offers the possibility of initiating host defence mechanisms against any unwanted antigen, though some problems still remain in preventing the body, from attacking the monoclonal antibody.
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M3 - Article
C2 - 1477573
AN - SCOPUS:0026492674
SN - 0959-8146
VL - 305
SP - 1269
EP - 1272
JO - British medical journal
JF - British medical journal
IS - 6864
ER -