Humanized Antibody - Distinction From "chimeric Antibody"

Distinction From "chimeric Antibody"

Humanization is usually seen as distinct from the creation of a mouse-human antibody chimera. So, although the creation of an antibody chimera is normally undertaken to achieve a more human-like antibody (by substituting the mouse Fc region of the antibody with that from human) simple chimeras of this type are not usually referred to as humanized. Rather, the protein sequence of a humanized antibody is essentially identical to that of a human variant, despite the non-human origin of some of its complementarity determining region (CDR) segments responsible for the ability of the antibody to bind to its target antigen.

Chimeric antibody names contain a -xi- stem. Examples of chimeric antibodies approved for human therapy include abciximab (ReoPro), basiliximab (Simulect), cetuximab (Erbitux), infliximab (Remicade) and rituximab (MabThera). There are also several examples of chimerics currently in clinical trials (e.g. bavituximab, see sortable list for additional examples).