This review specifically focuses on what is now called antibody engineering, and discusses the generation of chimeric, humanized, and fully human recombinant antibodies, immunoglobulin fragments, and artificial antigen-binding molecules.
Radiolabeled anti-calcitonin (CT) immunoglobulin fragments (131I-anti-CT F(ab')2) and meta-iodobenzylguanidine (131I-mIBG) were injected into nude mice with a transplanted medullary thyroid carcinoma (MCT).
In spite of the use of immunoglobulin fragments, varying the assay time and testing tumours of different sizes, specific tumour localisation was low with all seven monoclonal antibodies tested.
Recent advances in genetic engineering have made it possible to prepare immunoglobulin fragments consisting of variable domains using bacterial expression systems.