{"id":37390,"date":"2023-09-22T08:32:50","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T03:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=37390"},"modified":"2025-04-22T13:46:38","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T08:16:38","slug":"monoclonal-antibodies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/monoclonal-antibodies\/","title":{"rendered":"Monoclonal Antibodies"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is Nipah virus?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Monoclonal antibody<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is a monoclonal antibody?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>How do monoclonal antibodies work?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Important applications of monoclonal antibodies<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is m102.4?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Recently, India reached out to Australia to procure monoclonal antibody doses to combat the <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramias.com\/article\/nipah-kills-two-in-kerala\/650138168e4a07059ec0d7a7\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nipah virus<\/a> outbreak in Kerala.<\/li>\n<li>As per Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India is expecting 20 more doses soon.\n<ul>\n<li>India currently has the antibody doses available for ten persons only.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>No one in the country has been administered the dosage so far since it needs to be given at an early stage of infection.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is a monoclonal antibody?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Monoclonal antibodies are <u>laboratory-made proteins<\/u> that mimic the behaviour of antibodies produced by the immune system to protect against diseases and foreign substances.\n<ul>\n<li>An antibody attaches itself to an antigen (a foreign substance, usually a disease-causing molecule) and helps the immune system eliminate it from the body.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Monoclonal antibodies are specifically designed to target certain antigens.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Niels K. Jerne, Georges J.F. K\u00f6hler and C\u00e9sar Milstein<\/strong> were awarded the medicine Nobel Prize in 1984 for their work on the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How do monoclonal antibodies work?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Monoclonal antibodies are specifically engineered and generated to target a disease.<\/li>\n<li>They are meant to attach themselves to the specific disease-causing antigen.\n<ul>\n<li>An antigen is most likely to be a protein.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>For instance, most successful monoclonal antibodies during the pandemic were engineered to bind to the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.<\/li>\n<li>The binding prevented the protein from exercising its regular functions, including its ability to infect other cells.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Important applications of monoclonal antibodies<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Therapeutics<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>They are used in medicine to treat a variety of diseases, including cancer, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases.<\/li>\n<li>For example, monoclonal antibodies have been developed to treat conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, COVID-19, and certain types of cancer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Diagnostic Tools<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Monoclonal antibodies are used in diagnostic tests, such as ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), to detect specific proteins or pathogens in patient samples.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Research Tools<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Scientists use monoclonal antibodies in research to study and understand the function of specific proteins and cells.<\/li>\n<li>They are valuable tools in fields like immunology, cell biology, and genetics.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Biotechnology<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Monoclonal antibodies are used in the biotechnology industry for the purification and isolation of proteins.<\/li>\n<li>They are also employed in drug discovery and development processes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is m102.4?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>4 is a potent, fully human monoclonal antibody that <strong>neutralises Hendra and Nipah viruses<\/strong>, both outside and inside of living organisms.<\/li>\n<li>According to a research paper, the m102.4 monoclonal antibody <u>binds itself to the immunodominant receptor-binding glycoprotein of the Nipah virus<\/u>, potentially neutralising it.\n<ul>\n<li>Glycoproteins are one of the major components of viruses that cause diseases in humans.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The antibody has passed phase-one clinical trials.\n<ul>\n<li>This means that researchers tested it with a relatively small number of people to estimate the right dose of treatment that also doesn\u2019t cause side effects.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>As of now, the drug is used on a \u2018compassionate use\u2019 basis.\n<ul>\n<li>It is a treatment option that allows the use of an unauthorised medicine under strict conditions among people where:\n<ul>\n<li>no other alternative and\/or satisfactory authorised treatment is known to be possible and<\/li>\n<li>where patients cannot enter clinical trials for various reasons.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1)\u00a0What is an antigen?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>An antigen is a substance that can trigger an immune response in the body. Antigens are typically proteins or other molecules that are recognized by the immune system as foreign or non-self. When the immune system detects an antigen, it initiates a series of responses to defend the body against potential threats, such as infections or harmful substances.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2)\u00a0What is Hendra virus?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Hendra virus is a highly contagious and deadly virus that primarily affects horses and can also be transmitted from horses to humans. This virus is classified as a member of the Henipavirus genus within the Paramyxoviridae family. Hendra virus was first identified in 1994 during an outbreak in Hendra, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/health\/nipah-virus-outbreak-kerala-what-are-monoclonal-antibodies\/article67330401.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Nipah virus outbreak: What are monoclonal antibodies? | Explained<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/fact-sheets\/detail\/nipah-virus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>WHO<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/laninf\/article\/PIIS1473-30991930634-6\/fulltext#:~:text=The%20monoclonal%20antibody%20m102.,4%20in%20healthy%20adults.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>The Lancet<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A monoclonal antibody is a precise, cloned antibody used for targeted therapy\/diagnostics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}