Antibodies are tiny protein molecules with a vital role: binding to things with very high specificity.
The high specificity binding allows these proteins to act as molecules that can home in on anything you would like to target.
Over the years, scientists have exploited this specific homing ability of antibodies to use them for both research and therapy.
These antibodies can have different specificities and host organisms. They can be monoclonal or polyclonal, and can target a myriad of molecules.
Are you planning to use antibodies for your research, but can't find any antibodies for your target molecule?
Don't worry; we have got your back.
In this article, we will tell you all about the different uses of antibodies today and how you can get custom rabbit monoclonal antibodies for your research!
Applications of antibodies in medicine
Diagnosis
Antibodies have become key molecules for medical diagnostics. You can go about using them in two ways:
Many different biochemical kits and assays work by detecting antibodies specific to a particular disease/organism to determine whether the disease is present or not.
Inversely, immunodiagnostic techniques such as ELISA use multiple antibodies to detect specific antigens that are a sign of the presence of a disease.
Moreover, measuring the levels of the different classes of antibodies can also provide important insight into the state of the immune system. For instance, elevated levels of IgM can be a sign of viral hepatitis.
At the clinical level, this insight helps inform doctors about prognosis and treatment steps they can take.
Similarly, antibodies can also be used to develop over-the-counter diagnostic kits. For instance, the rapid kits used to detect COVID-19 or the pregnancy test kits that bind to the human chorionic gonadotropin hormone both use antibodies.
Therapy
Ready-made antibodies such as those produced by monoclonal antibody development companies can be used to provide passive immunity to patients.
Currently, monoclonal antibodies are widely used to treat many diseases, including multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, and even rheumatoid arthritis. Several different forms of cancers are also being treated using monoclonal antibodies.
Over a dozen antibodies have been approved by the FDA for cancer treatment. Many clinical trials are testing even more antibodies that can act as therapeutic agents for cancer.
Prenatal therapy
Rho(D) antibodies are used to administer prenatal treatment and minimize any risk of a hemolytic disease for the baby.
If the mother and the fetus are Rh-incompatible, mixing their blood may cause the sensitization of the mother's Rh- blood against the fetus's Rh+ antigen. This can cause the mother's immune system to launch an attack against the fetus.
However, if we treat the mothers with anti-RhD antibodies, the fetus's Rh antigen will be eliminated. This will prevent the maternal lymphocytes from producing antibodies against it and help the mother have a safe pregnancy even in the future.
Biomedical research
Advances in fermentation and cellular engineering have allowed companies to drastically scale up the production of antibodies. This has allowed antibodies to be extensively used to enhance research efficiency and output.
Let's get an overview of how you can use antibodies for research.
Immunosorbent assays
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is a very popular technique used to detect and measure an antigen's quantity in samples.
Direct ELISAs have conjugated detection antibodies that bind to the target antigen which is directly immobilized on the plate. This type of ELISA uses only one kind of antibody.
On the other hand, indirect ELISA uses two types of antibodies: a primary antibody and a secondary antibody. The primary antibody binds to the antigen, and the secondary antibody binds to the primary antibody.
Western blotting
For a Western blot, we first need to separate the proteins electrophoretically and then transfer the bands onto a blotting paper – usually a nitrocellulose membrane.
Afterwards, we add labeled antibodies. If our target molecule (the one that the antibodies bind to) is present among the bands, the antibodies will bind to it, and we can then visualize the bound antibodies to determine both the presence and the size of the molecule.
Immunohistochemistry/immunocytochemistry
Immunohistochemistry and immunocytochemistry are techniques used for in situ determination of the presence and the intracellular location of proteins.
Like indirect ELISA, these techniques also use two different antibodies. Here the primary antibody binds to the target proteins, and the secondary antibodies bind to the antigen-primary antibody complex.
Immunoprecipitation assays
In immunoprecipitation techniques, antibodies can be used to bind your target protein and precipitate it for easier and more accurate purification.
First, antibodies are attached to agarose beads, and the beads are then incubated with the mixture containing our target of interest. The antibodies bind the target antigens, and since they are connected to the beads, we can separate them using centrifugation.
In vivo applications
We can use antibodies for certain in vivo functional analyses as well. For instance, antibodies can be used to target and block off cell surface receptors to see what role that receptor plays in the cell.
Flow cytometry
Antibodies are routinely used for flow cytometry. Using this technique, we can attach antibodies to the surface of individual cells and separate those cells from a mixture. These antibodies are all tagged with fluorochromes that allow for easy detection.
Advanced flow cytometry systems also come with the capability of handling cells labeled with up to 3 different antibodies.
How to get your own custom rabbit monoclonal antibodies?
In recent years, rabbit antibody production has taken off. Rabbit monoclonal antibodies have taken over mouse monoclonal antibodies because of their numerous advantages, including a greater range of targetable molecules, higher specificity, and greater affinity.
However, if you want some custom rabbit monoclonal antibodies made, you need to ensure that you are partnering with a trusted vendor because rabbit monoclonal antibodies can be expensive to produce.
You need a firm that has experience manufacturing high-quality rabbit monoclonal antibodies, like Boster Bio. They produce some of the top 0.001%, fully validated, affinity-matured monoclonal antibodies.
The best part is, Boster can deliver the antibodies in less than 6 months!
So, what are you waiting for? Get a rabbit monoclonal antibody project started with Boster's custom rabbit monoclonal antibody production service!
References
Singh, S., Tank, N. K., Dwiwedi, P., Charan, J., Kaur, R., Sidhu, P., & Chugh, V. K. (2018). Monoclonal antibodies: a review. Current clinical pharmacology, 13(2), 85-99.
Zahavi, D., & Weiner, L. (2020). Monoclonal antibodies in cancer therapy. Antibodies, 9(3), 34.
