Abstract
Due to the difficulties found when generating fully human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) by the traditional method, several efforts have attempted to overcome these problems, with varying levels of success. One approach has been the development of transgenic mice carrying immunoglobulin (Ig) genes in germline configuration. The engineered mouse genome can undergo productive rearrangement in the B-cell population, with the generation of mouse B lymphocytes expressing human Ig (hIg) chains. To avoid the expression of mouse heavy or light chains, the endogenous mouse Ig (mIg) loci must be silenced by gene-targeting techniques. Subsequently, to obtain antigen-specific mAbs, conventional immunization protocols can be followed and the mAb technique used (fusion of activated B cells with mouse myeloma cells, screening, cloning, freezing, and testing) with these animThis chapter summarizes the most common chromatographic mAb andals expressing human Ig genes. This chapter describes the type of transgenic-knockout mice generated for various research groups, provides examples of human mAbs developed by research groups and companies, and includes protocols of immunization, generation, production, and purification of human mAbs from such mice. In addition, it also addresses the problems detected, and includes some of the methods that can be used to analyze functional activities with human mAbs.
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Acknowledgments
Financial support from the Xunta de Galicia (CINBIO, Centro singular de investigación de Galicia 2016-2019 ref. ED431G/02 and grupo de referencia competitiva ref. ED431C 2016041) and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund—ERDF) is gratefully acknowledged. S. Magadán has also received funding from People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under REA grant agreement n° 600391.
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Mompó, S.M., González-Fernández, Á. (2019). Antigen-Specific Human Monoclonal Antibodies from Transgenic Mice. In: Steinitz, M. (eds) Human Monoclonal Antibodies. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1904. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8958-4_11
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