Immunosuppression with monoclonal antibodies. A model to determine the rules for effective serotherapy.

Journal article

Despite the range of available T cell specific monoclonal antibodies, there are no established rules to predict which might be immunosuppressive. We here describe a series of five rat monoclonal antibodies to a defined T cell antigen (mouse Thy-1) and evaluate their ability to immunosuppress mice. When compared with rabbit anti-lymphocyte globulin, only one of these monoclonal antibodies was able to delay skin allograft rejection and eliminate antibody responses to sheep red blood cells. This antibody was immunosuppressive following intra-peritoneal administration, even though it did not eliminate all of the T cells in vivo. Two factors may be relevant in determining the immunosuppressive properties of this reagent. First, the monoclonal antibody is of the rat IgG2b sub-class, and second, the specificity of the antibody is different to the other monoclonal antibodies in that it reacts with sub-populations of peripheral T cells, thymocytes and non-T cells. In practice, this suggests that to derive suitable monoclonal antibodies for human serotherapy, one should give attention to both the subclass and the fine specificity of the antibody for the target molecule.

Authors: Cobbold, S; Thierfelder, S; Waldmann, H

• Journal: Molecular biology and medicine
• Volume: 1
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 285-304
• Publication date: 1983-10-01
• ISSN: 0735-1313
• Language: English
• Keywords: Antibodies, Monoclonal; Antigens, Thy-1; Epitopes; Graft Rejection; Isoantigens; Antibody Affinity; Animals; Mice; Antibody Formation; Antigens, Surface; Antibody Specificity; T-Lymphocytes; Mice, Inbred Strains; Immunosuppression