Determination of the immunoreactivity of radiolabelled monoclonal antibody fragments by binding to immobilised anti-idiotypic antibodies.

The feasibility of using immobilised anti-combining site (anti-idiotypic) antibodies as targets for assessing the immunoreactivity of radiolabelled anti-tumour monoclonal antibodies has been assessed. With two anti-tumour monoclonal antibodies (anti-CEA and anti-gp72) it was possible to quantify binding of their 125I labelled Fab fragment preparations to their anti-idiotypic monoclonal antibodies immobilised on cyanogen bromide activated Sepharose. Binding was specific for immobilised anti-idiotypic antibodies reactive with the anti-tumour antibody fragments. Moreover binding was inhibited by unlabelled Fab or intact monoclonal antibody, but not by an irrelevant antibody or its Fab fragment. The use of anti-idiotypic antibodies for quantifying immunoreactions of radiolabelled antibodies has advantages over the use of initial target antigen, which may be available only in inconvenient forms, such as cultured tumour cells.