IMMUNOTHERAPY FOR CANCER - CONSTRUCTION, EXPRESSION AND FUNCTIONAL-CHARACTERIZATION OF CHIMERIC ANTIBODIES

Monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) are a potential key component for the tre atment of cancer, because of their specificity and multiple effector f unctions, Hybridoma technology and progress in genetic engineering mad e it possible to customize antibody molecules, rendering them more sui table for selective application, A widely used technique is the constr uction of mouse-human hybrid molecules by recombinant DNA techniques, These so-called chimeric antibodies contain the murine variable (V) re gions fused to the human constant (C) regions, In this report, a gener al approach is described for the production of chimeric antibodies, Th e gene segments encoding the murine variable heavy and light chain are isolated by the polymerase chain reaction and cloned into expression vectors containing the human yl heavy chain gene and the human K light chain gene, respectively, Subsequently, these constructs are transfec ted into a non-Ig-producing murine hybridoma, eg SP2/0 cells, The in v itro study of the functional characteristics and biological properties of the thus obtained chimeric antibodies are discussed.