What is the difference between a murine, chimeric and humanized therapeutic antibody?
A murine antibody is derived solely from mouse sequences and therefore is viewed as foreign by the host body and can elicit an antibody reaction on its own and be eliminated before having an effect. A chimeric antibody is a mixture of both mouse and human sequences, usually a 30/70 percent split, respectively, where the mouse components are responsible for binding to the antigen and the human components are involved in inducing a therapeutic effect. Humanized means the antibody contains over 90 percent human sequences.
