MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES AGAINST PURIFIED NICOTINIC ACETYLCHOLINE-RECEPTOR

Eleven stable monoclonal hybridoma cell lines synthesizing antibodies against purified acetylcholine receptor from Torpedo californica were produced. Spleen cells from a rat immunized with acetylcholine receptor and exhibiting experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis were fused with a mouse myeloma cell line. Studies of the binding of these antibodies to acetylcholine receptor by use of a passive hemagglutination assay in the presence of various cholinergic ligands revealed four general categories of binding specificities: 1) blockade only by alpha bungarotoxin, 2) partial blockade by all ligands, 3) increased titer in the presence of alpha bungarotoxin and benzoquinonium chloride, 4) absence of effect by any ligand. © 1979.