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Monoclonal Antibodies Are An Essential Tool For Medicine

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A monoclonal antibody is a monospecific antibody which is created from identical immune cells that happen to be clones from a unique parent cell. Typically, monoclonal antibodies are the product of the fusion between a mouse’s spleen cells injected with desired antigens and myeloma cells. These fused hybrid cells are able to work together due to the spleen cell providing hypoxanthine-guanine-phosphoribosyl transferase (HGPRT), while the myeloma cell has traits that are similar to a cancer cell that makes it immortal. This mixture creates clones with an ability to bind to specific antigens. With nearly any substance, the production of monoclonal antibodies that can bind to those substances in order to detect and purify them is a possibility. This is why monoclonal antibodies are an essential tool for medicine.
There are certain types of treatments that are associated with monoclonal antibodies. Monoclonal antibody therapy uses antibodies to bind to specific cells or proteins in order to stimulate one’s immune system in order to attack those specific cells. It can be used for autoimmune diseases by inhibiting human immunoglobulin or attaching to activated T-cells and preventing kidney transplant rejections. One major use for monoclonal antibodies is for cancer treatment, specifically lung cancer. A simple definition for the monoclonal antibodies’ role in cancer treatment is that it binds only to cancer cell-specific antigens in order to activate an immunological response

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