Antibodies can also be grown outside of the patient’s body and injected into them to help aid the immune system to fight disease.
[3] It has been observed that anywhere from one-third to more than half of patients receiving mouse-derived antibodies will develop some form of HAMA response.
[4] Even more startling, at least ten percent of the general population has been observed to carry some form of animal-derived antibodies, most often from mice, due to the preponderance of medical agents made from the serum of animals.
[6][7] It took considerable, sustained pressure from animal welfare groups, led by legal efforts initiated by the American Anti-Vivisection Society, before this would change.
In the heterogeneous immunoassay the separation step will wash away the free substrate unable to bind due to HAMA blocking; only the immobilized mouse antibodies and the HAMA remain in the immunoassay when the labeled secondary antibodies are administered.