Designer Drugs to Make Antibodies

In addition to the crucial role in defending the body, antibodies are valuable for many medical and scientific purposes. To acquire a supply of pure antibody, scientists inject an animal with the antigen that induces B cells to form plasma cells, which in turn produced desired antibody. Since normal plasma cells cannot be grown outside the body, scientists induce them to merge with birdomas proliferate under laboratory conditions and produce monoclonal antibodies. Because a given antibody binds only to one specific type of antigen, antibodies are invaluable tools for finding and/or marking molecules in living animals or in dissected tissues. For example, pregnancy tests typically use an antibody that binds to a hormone released by a developing embryo.

According to Wikipedia, "designer drugs" means Designer drug is a term used to describe psychoactive drugs which are created (or marketed, if they had already existed) to get around existing drug laws, usually by modifying the molecular structures of existing drugs to varying degrees or less commonly by finding drugs with entirely different chemical structures that produce similar subjective effects to illegal recreational drugs.

For "therapeutic antibodies" to reach their full potential in the fight against disease, they must be produced in massive quantities. Modern genetic engineering techniques are being use to introduce the genes for human antibodies into farm animals (engineered cows and goats now secrete anti-bodies in their milk) and even into corn and other plants. Scientists are experimenting with antibody therapies directed against a variety of invaders and toxins, including tooth decay bacteria, herpes viruses, cancer cells, and even addicted drugs. Cancer cell antibodies can be linked to radioactive particles or chemotherapy drugs, allowing them to be carried directly and specifically to the cancer. Sometimes called "magic bullets", there are several of these monoclonal antibody-based drugs now on the market, including those targeting breast cancer and leukemia. Antibodies to cocaine can bind to the cocaine molecule and eliminates its effects, potentially counteracting a drug overdose or making the drug unstable to elicit a "high". Recently, drug company researchers have cloned genes for human T-cell receptors and introduced them unto harmless bacteria that can produce the T cells in large quantities. Unlike natural T-cell receptors, these cloned versions can exist independently of the T cell. The drug companies hope to be able to produce "designer T-cell receptors" that are specific for particular cancers or infectious agents. As with monoclonal antibodies, the T-cell receptors could be used to ferry drugs or radioisotopes directly to infected or cancerous cells. The ability to mass-produce specifically designed antibodies and T-cell receptors opens up an exciting frontier in the prevention and cure of disease-using an adrenal derived from the immune system's own weapons.

Reference: http://www.nature.com/nsmb/journal/v9/n1/full/nsb0102-1.html