Hybridoma technology; advancements, clinical significance, and future aspects

BACKGROUND: Hybridoma technology is one of the most common methods used to produce monoclonal antibodies. In this process, antibody-producing B lymphocytes are isolated from mice after immunizing the mice with specific antigen and are fused with immortal myeloma cell lines to form hybrid cells, called hybridoma cell lines. These hybridoma cells are cultured in a lab to produce monoclonal antibodies, against a specific antigen. This can be achieved by an in vivo or an in vitro method. It is preferred above all the available methods to produce monoclonal antibodies because antibodies thus produced are of high purity and are highly sensitive and specific. Monoclonal antibodies are useful in diagnostic, imaging, and therapeutic purposes and have a very high clinical significance. Once hybridoma cells become stable, these cell lines offer limitless production of homogenized antibodies. This method is also cost-effective. The antibodies produced by this method are highly sensitive and specific to the targeted antigen. It is an important tool used in various fields of research such as in toxicology, animal biotechnology, medicine, pharmacology, cell, and molecular biology. Monoclonal antibodies are used extensively in the diagnosis and therapeutic applications. Radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies are used as probes to detect tumor antigens in the living system; also radioisotope coupled antibodies are used for therapeutic target specific action on oncogenic cells. SHORT CONCLUSION: Presently, the monoclonal antibodies used are either raised in mice or rats; this poses a risk of disease transfer from mice to humans. There is no guarantee that antibodies thus created are entirely virus-free, despite the purification process. Also, there are some immunogenic responses observed against the antibodies of mice origin. Technologically advanced techniques such as genetic engineering helped in reducing some of these limitations. Advanced methods are under development to make lab-produced monoclonal antibodies as human as possible. This review discusses the advantages and challenges associated with monoclonal antibody production, also enlightens the advancement, clinical significance, and future aspects of this technique.