Abzyme generation using an anti-idiotypic antibody as the "internal image" of an enzyme active site.

Since the two reports published in 1986 by the laboratories of R. Lerner and P. G. Schultz, it has been clearly established that antibodies may be induced to act as catalysts in numerous chemical reactions. In all cases, catalytic antibodies were elicited using a substrate-based approach. In the present article, we propose an alternative and complementary enzyme-based approach to generate catalytic antibodies. This approach uses the properties of anti-idiotypic antibodies to generate internal images of enzyme active sites. Experimental results are discussed for polyclonal and monoclonal anti-idiotypic antibodies.