Monoclonal antibodies and their use in microbiology

Monoclonal antibodies--their diagnostic potential

Considering the long and excellent performance of 'classical' immune sera in a range of diagnostic applications, the advent of 'tailor-made' highly specific monoclonal antibodies has given even higher hopes of diagnostic accuracy for the future. Understanding what monoclonal antibodies are and how they compare to polyclonal sources of antibodies is absolutely essential in order to appreciate their potential. This paper will briefly focus on the production, characterization and use of monoclonal antibodies and look critically at the future prospects. Specificity and cross-reactivity are key terms which are explained with examples in this paper. It can be anticipated that diagnostic kits in the future will be composite assays using highly specific monoclonals (or oligoclonal cocktails) in conjunction with high-avidity polyclonal sera, thus taking advantage of the best features of both systems.

Rapid detection of salmonellas in raw meats using a fluorescent antibody-microcolony technique

A fluorescent antibody-microcolony technique was developed for the rapid detection of salmonellas in pure cultures. Examination of microcolonies made the detection of salmonellas by epifluorescence microscopy easier and more reliable than using fluorescent antibody and single cells. After a study of the most effective selective enrichment media for increasing the number of salmonellas, the technique was examined with various samples of raw meats. It was able to detect salmonellas in 24 h and appeared to be as sensitive as conventional cultural techniques. Of the 101 samples studied, complete agreement was obtained with conventional methods for 94 but six apparently false positive results and one false negative result occurred.