Chapter 17

Monitoring of Monoclonal Antibodies, A New Window in the Use of Biomarkers in Pharmacology

Enrique Jiménez-Santos, Iris Muñoz-García, Maria S García-Simón, Jose Pedregosa-Díaz and Juan Antonio Vílchez

Abstract

Pharmacology has been a major field of clinical laboratory. Firstly in the emergency measures for the diagnosis of possible poisoning, and secondly in the monitoring of various treatments, mainly antibiotics and anticonvulsants, but also others in such as antidepressants, digitalis, anxiolytics, etc. The discovery of biological treatments, based on the use of monoclonal antibodies, and their use for the treatment of various chronic diseases, whether the digestive tract or the rheumatic diseases, is considered a big step in favor of patients and their quality of life. However, these treatments have had a worse response than they were supposed to, sometimes due to their own immunogenicity of these monoclonal antibodies in the organism, triggering responses to the drug itself, which reduces their effectiveness and also involves high costs and secondary effects to patients. That is why the biological monitoring of drugs has been proven to be a way to improve treatment adherence, and cost-effectiveness. In turn, it is also important to determine the presence of antibodies generated by the patient in response to the drug, because these cases determine inefficient and highly expensive treatments and the injury to the patient.

Total Pages: 505-527 (23)

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