When monoclonal antibodies are not monospecific: Hybridomas frequently express additional functional variable regions.

ABSTRACT: Monoclonal antibodies are commonly assumed to be monospecific, but anecdotal studies have reported genetic diversity in antibody heavy chain and light chain genes found within individual hybridomas. As the prevalence of such diversity has never been explored, we analyzed 185 random hybridomas, in a large multicenter dataset. The hybridomas analyzed were not biased towards those with cloning difficulties or known to have additional chains. Of the hybridomas we evaluated, 126 (68.1%) contained no additional productive chains, while the remaining 59 (31.9%) contained one or more additional productive heavy or light chains. The expression of additional chains degraded properties of the antibodies, including specificity, binding signal and/or signal-to-noise ratio, as determined by enzyme-linke

SUBMITTER: Bradbury ARM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5973764 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May/Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature