A brief review of monoclonal antibody technology and its representative applications in immunoassays. Issue 4 (4th July 2018) - Gao, Yiling
ABSTRACT: Modern immunoassay methods and techniques are important tools in labs of basic biology, biomedicine, clinical medicine, and even in home tests, such as pregnant test, many of which utilize antibody—antigen binding mechanism as their foundational principle in common. Meanwhile, compared with polyclonal anitbody, monoclonal antibody shows obvious advantages in their application of modern immunoassays. Furthermore, the progress of other technologies have also promoted the development of modern immunoassays robustly, and widely made it extend into more research and industry fields. In this review, we will first look back to the discovery of antibody-antigen binding mechanism, antibody structure, and the development of monoclonal antibody technology. Then, a brief description of different classical immunoassays will be introduced, such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, flow cytometry, Immunoprecipitation, and lateral flow immunoassays, through of which, we hope a brief and clear picture can be displayed in front of readers. Abbreviations: ELISA: Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; WB: western blot; Mab: monoclonal antibody; IP: immunoprecipitation; LFIAs: lateral flow immunoassays.