Speaking personally: monoclonal antibodies as diagnostic reagents

It is 10 years since Kohler & Milstein published the first paper describing the laboratory production of a monoclonal antibody. In those 10 yr monoclonal antibodies have caused a revolution in Immunology and in some branches of Pathology. After a surprisingly slow initial reaction, the scientific community has embraced the new technique enthusiastically, indeed overenthusiastically. Inevitably, excessive enthusiasm was followed by disappointment. There can be no doubt that monoclonal antibodies provide opportunities for major improvements in diagnostic specificity and resolving power. It is equally clear that monoclonal antibodies do not solve all analytical problems, and have a few problems of their very own. This brief review presents one man's assessment of the place of monoclonal antibodies as diagnostic reagents and discusses the properties of the antibodies and the parameters of the assay which most influence the successful use of diagnostic tests based on monoclonal antibodies.