Antibodies derived from mice are of limited use as therapeutic
agents since the human immune system recognizes such antibodies as
foreign molecules and may trigger a defense
reaction against them. In this case, the human organism combats the
antibody, which reduces the benefits of the therapeutic substance. It
is possible to reduce such defense reactions by chimerizing or
humanizing the mouse antibodies, thus decreasing their immunogenicity.
Development of Antibody Technologies
Only recently technological advances have introduced fully human
antibodies, which should show very few or no side effects at all.
MorphoSys has developed a concept for
the in vitro generation of highly specific and fully human antibodies
and established an antibody library called HuCAL (Human Combinatorial
Antibody Library).
