Why the Measurement of Monoclonal Antibodies (mAbs)?
Posted by Brandon Savela on Sep 26th 2016
In the past century, pharmaceutical drugs have been chemical substances with a certain well-known chemical formula. These chemical substances have been rather unspecific and have shown considerable side effects. During the last two decades, several pharmaceutical companies have developed well-designed, highly specific antibodies for therapeutic use. These Monoclonal Antibodies (mAbs) show very little or no side effects. Therefore they are used in many different medical areas with great success. The main areas are:Rheumatology/Autoimmune Disorders (Rheumatoid Arthritis)
- Gastrointestinal disorders (Crohn's Disease)
- Oncology (Breast and Colon Cancer, Myeloma)
- Dermatology (Psoriasis, Melanoma)
- Ophthalmology (Macular Degeneration)
- Infectious disease (RSV)
- Bone disease (Osteoporosis)
The most widely used mAb drugs are designed to tightly bind TNF alpha in subjects. This is important as free TNF alpha will trigger inflammation and therefore finally will destroy the cells. If TNF alpha (which is called the target) is tightly bound to the mAb, it is inactivated and the clinical symptoms of the illness are significantly improved.
When a subject is treated with such mAbs, it may be useful to measure the concentration of these drugs which still are free and represent the capacity of the drug for catching the target (e.g. TNF alpha).
This is exactly what we achieve with our drug test kits coded AA.
In these kits we are coating the microtiter plates (MTP) with the target molecule (e.g. TNF alpha). This immobilized target will catch all free drug molecules from the sample during the first incubation. During the following incubation, a conjugate will label the immobilized drug and can be detected by adding TMB. In such an assay design, the immobilized target (e.g. TNF alpha) of course will bind to any drug which is specific for this target. In order to avoid this unspecific binding we also have developed an alternative ELISA type which is using a monoclonal antibody from our own development as a catcher on the surface of the MTP. This assay type only and specifically is measuring one drug and does not cross react with any other drug. The code for such an assay type in our product range is AB.