Rat Monoclonal Antibodies Against Viral Antigens

In the field of virology, the many advantages and possibilities of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) are now well documented. Owing to the hybridoma technology, it is indeed possible to produce in large amounts antibody specific for given epitopes. For the diagnosis of viral diseases, it means the supply of specific and reproducible tools which are suitable not only to detect the presence of a virus, but also to differentiate from each other strains with closely related antigenic make-up. In more basic research, the approach provides new ways to characterize, quantify, and purify virions or viral peptides; besides it allows the selection of viruses mutated at a given antigenic determinant and opens new perspectives for those who in virology analyze the relationship between structure and function. Since the pioneering work of Koprowski et al., ¹ MAbs have been widely used in the study of virus variants. Reviews on the subject are to be found in the literature. ^{2 - 6}