ABSTRACT
DAVIDE. YOCUM University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson, Arizona ALAN M. SOLINGER IDEC Pharmaceuticals Corporation, and University of California, San Diego, California JOHN A. LIPANI SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, Collegeville, Pennsylvania
I. INTRODUCTION
Murine monoclonal antibodies (MAb) have been used effectively for immunotherapy ( 1,2). However, patients quickly develop human anti-mouse antibodies (HAMA response) that render the treatment ineffective. The chimeric antibodies appear biologically superior to the murine antibodies since they are part human and part murine (3,4). However, a HAMA response still develops with these antibodies. Even fully humanized MAb have triggered production of antiidiotypic antibodies (5). PRIMA TIZED antibodies are part human and part monkey with the variable regions showing a high degree of homology to analogous human variable regions and a high affinity to human antigens. These antibodies may be as effective as the murine or chimeric antibodies and also may be less immunogenic. In addition, grafting the human constant region allows the choice of effector functions, i.e., a molecule with depleting or nondepleting activities, complement fixation, and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity.
