The Nation - News from Aug. 8, 1985

Monoclonal antibodies are effective in stopping the body’s attempts to reject transplanted organs, researchers reported in the latest edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. Antibodies are tailor-made proteins with a very specific shape, which allows them to attach to the surfaces of various cells in the body. Drugs can be attached to the antibodies so that treatment can be directed to specific cells. Rejection by the body remains a major problem in organ transplants, the researchers said. Use of an experimental monoclonal antibody called OKT3 on 60 patients whose bodies were rejecting their transplanted kidneys resulted in success in 94% of the cases.