The discoveries of natural and the development of manufactured highly efficient
catalytic antibodies (abzymes) opens the door to many practical applications. One of the most fascinating is the use of such
antibodies in human
therapy and prevention (vaccination), of
cancer,
AIDS,
autoimmune diseases. A special entity of naturally occurring
DNA hydrolytic
anti-DNA antibodies is emerging within past decades linked to autoimmune and
lymphoproliferative disorders, such as
systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE),
multiple sclerosis (MS),
Sjogren Syndrome (SS), B - Chronic lymphocytic leucosis (B-CLL), and
Multiple Myeloma (MM). The origin of the
antibodies is unknown. The underlying mechanisms of these activities are suggested to be penetration into the living cells and translocation in the nucleus, with recognition of the specific binding sites at particular (ss or
ds) DNA. There are controversies in the literature whether hydrolysis is a sequence-specific event. The interplay between
anti-DNA antibodies and
DNA is not yet elucidated. This molecular "twist" also suggests that
anti-DNA antibodies with
DNA hydrolytic capacity could be the organism's immune response to a microbial attack, with microbial
DNA, or specific genes within microbial DNA sequence, as a target for neutralization. The
catalytic antibody-based approach can become a key tool in selective chemotherapeutic strategies.