Monoclonal antibodies

Question 1

Antibodies

Answer 1

Antibodies are produces by white blood cells called lymphocytes
Lymphocytes produce antibodies against anything that the body detects as foreign
Scientists call foreign objects like this antigens
Scientists can trigger lymphocytes to produce antibodies that can be useful for pregnancy tests and cancer treatments

Question 2

Monoclonal antibodies

Answer 2

If we inject a mouse with an antigen, then lymphocytes produce antibodies against the antigen
We collect the lymphocytes from the mouse but these lymphocytes will not divide by mitosis
So we fuse our lymphocytes with a tumor cell which are good at dividing by mitosis
The cell produced is called a hybridoma, hybridoma cells can produce antibodies and divide by mitosis
. We select a hybridoma cell producing the antibody we want, we then allow the cell to divide by mitosis forming identical clones
. We call these identical clones monoclonal antibodies
. A large amount of these antibodies can be collected and purified

Question 3

Key facts about monoclonal antibodies

Answer 3

. Monoclonal antibodies are produced from a single clone of hybridoma cells
. That means the monoclonal antibodies are specific to one binding site on one protein antigen
. The benefit of this is that monoclonal antibodies can target a specific chemical or specific cells in the body. That means that monoclonal antibodies have a large number of uses