The Application and Mechanism of Monoclonal Antibodies in Diseases

Abstract

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), as a kind of highly specific biological drugs, play an increasingly important role in the treatment and prevention of diseases. Monoclonal antibodies were invented in the 1970s and went through four stages of development to become fully humanized antibodies. The principle is to use cell fusion technology to fuse myeloma cells and B lymphocytes, and then use HAT culture medium to screen successfully fused hybridoma cells. The preparation process of mAbs is varied, and the required biotechnology (protein purification, ELISA, immunofluorescence) and equipment are complex. With the continuous progress of biotechnology, mAb has been widely used in many fields such as tumor, autoimmune disease and infectious disease. At present, there are many mAb drugs on the market for the treatment of various intractable diseases. In tumor therapy, mAbs can inhibit the growth and spread of tumor cells by targeting tumor cell surface antigens, and improve the therapeutic effect. In autoimmune diseases, mAb can target autoantigens, regulate the immune response, reduce symptoms, and improve the condition. In addition, mAbs also play an important role in the treatment of infectious diseases, such as neutralizing viruses, bacteria and other pathogens, preventing their infection of cells. The mechanism of mAbs, including binding to antigens, triggering signal transduction, endocytosis and degradation, and inducing immune response, is also introduced. There are also many binding sites where mAbs act on different diseases, such as PD-1, PD-L1, CD20, F and G surface proteins of RSV. MAb has excellent specificity and effectiveness, but it is expensive and has its own risks. With the continuous development and optimization of monoclonal antibody technology, its application prospect in the future disease treatment will be broader.