Mirus Bio develops new antibody production technique

The new process, described in the journal BioTechniques, involves an new method of intravenously injecting DNA into animals, whose immune systems respond by producing antibodies that can be harvested for subsequent use.

Antibodies are part of the body’s immune system. Because they can bind to and neutralize specific antigens, such as proteins, viruses, and cancer cells, they have become useful tools in medical diagnosis and scientific research. Antibodies are also used for the targeted treatment of diseases, such as cancer.

Conventional methods of generating antibodies require the slow process of identifying, isolating, and purifying the protein which serves as the target antigen, before it can be injected into the animal in order to elicit the desired antibody response.

However, due to the processes employed, such purified proteins may not be identical to the natural antigenic protein, and therefore may not be as potent at eliciting an immune response. They can also be very difficult to manufacture

“The new technique developed at Mirus Bio bypasses these hurdles and enables research animals to naturally produce antigenic proteins that elicit a potent antibody response. This offers a higher quality antibody in less time at reduced cost,” said the company in a statement.