ATLANTA—Researchers at Emory University have developed a new method of rapidly producing highly targeted monoclonal antibodies that could be used to diagnose and stave off viruses including the H1N1 (swine flu) virus.
Rafi Ahmed, PhD, and his collaborators, including postdoctoral fellow Jens Wrammert, PhD, generated high-affinity monoclonal antibodies against an influenza virus strain only a month after vaccinating human volunteers.
They believe the technique could be used for any infectious disease, and they are continuing to study its use against flu viruses, including H1N1. Ahmed is director of the Emory Vaccine Center and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar,
To listen to Ahmed’s own words about this novel way of creating antibodies, access Emory’s new Sound Science podcast at http://whsc.emory.edu/soundscience/
The antibodies, which can be isolated from a small amount of blood of infected humans, could be targeted against H1N1 and rapidly reproduced to detect or attack the virus. The monoclonal antibody technology was described last year in the journal Nature and is being developed in collaboration with scientists at the University of Chicago.
Using this new technique, researchers could quickly generate human antibodies against a pandemic flu strain as a stopgap therapy or to protect people from infection.
With just a few tablespoons of blood, the scientists can rapidly generate human antibodies that could be used for diagnosis or treatment of newly emerging strains of influenza. In the face of a disease outbreak, the ability to quickly produce infection-fighting human monoclonal antibodies would be invaluable, say the researchers.
Conventional methods of making human monoclonal antibodies are time-consuming and laborious, says Ahmed. For example, one method involves sifting through human B cells–white blood cells that make human antibodies–and then looking for specific cells that make the right antibodies.
“Not only is the new method quicker and less cumbersome, but this could be applied to almost any infectious disease. In any kind of emerging infection, speed is essential,” says Ahmed.
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