Toxicology of Industrial Compounds

186 MOLECULAR APPROACHES TO ASSESS CANCER RISKS
should be rapid and mild in order to minimise the formation of artefacts.
Currently, immunoaffinity technology holds the greatest promise.
Immunoenrichment of DNA adducts necessitates antibodies possessing
the appropriate specificities and affinities to permit selective binding of
adducts at the very low abundances encountered in hydrolysates or enzyme
digests of human DNA. The immune system does not normally respond to
small molecules per se. However, the system can be induced to produce
effective antibodies by immunising with the small molecule (hapten)
coupled to a protein. Such treatment induces a spectrum of antibodyproducing
cells, each producing a specific antibody. Most of these
antibodies recognise various regions (epitopes) of the carrier protein while
a few may specifically recognise and bind the small molecule of interest.
Suitable antibody-producing cells can be selected and cloned to provide a
permanent source of homogenous antibody (monoclonal antibody, Mab).
Mabs can be raised against virtually any organic chemical although some
lower molecular weight compounds (