Name: Immunology wars: Monoclonal antibodies
Uploaded: 2018-10-24T05:37:24.000Z
Duration: 3 min 11 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

When it comes to treating diseases like cancer,

modern medicine has an impressive arsenal.

are Y-shaped proteins called monoclonal antibodies.

such as a particular toxin, bacteria or virus.

When they bind to their target, they send a signal…

This bacterium is now marked for destruction.

These naturally-produced antibodies are pretty effective,

scientists figured out how to mass produce them.

They can take any specifically-targeted antibody

and make huge numbers of identical clones,

which means you can produce monoclonal antibodies,

Mutated cells that start growing out of control

that can detect infected or mutated cells,

and when it finds one, it secretes toxic molecules

But the CTLs do sometimes need to be reined in.

the immune system can start causing collateral damage

This is where monoclonal antibodies come in.

With their ability to be targeted at specific diseases,