Context:- Monoclonal antibody tech promises better disease prevention and control in Africa. They are used to address different kinds of diseases, not just infections.
Monoclonal Antibody
Lab-made copies of B cells that mimic the body’s immune system. The aim is to enable the production of proteins that are very specific to the foreign bodies called antigens.
They’re called monoclonal because they are produced by single clone of the B cells. So, you can have the exact copies of the same protein produced many times over and this way they are called Mab
MAb can be produced outside the body, but you have to focus on the type since what is produced in our bodies are of different types, hundreds of them. Whatever infection you have, there is an antibody produced in the body, but if we are producing it from outside, it has to be specific.
MAb are used to address different kinds of diseases, not just infections.
Cancer is not infection, but you can use monoclonal antibodies against it.
- To treat cancer, the standard method is chemotherapy — the use of drugs.
- But those drugs are usually cytotoxic. They kill everything — both the normal cells and the cancer cells.
- Sometimes, we give radiation; even radiation cannot choose which cells to kill.
- But MAb can target specific problems and attack those cells
Autoimmune diseases are not infections, but you can use Mab.
MAb can be used against infections like malaria or others as they are made to target anything that is interpreted as outside.
