Over the past 5 years, clinical immunology, as a whole, has advanced more rapidly than over the past 20 years. Many of these advances have been que to monoclonal antibody technology with its ability to identify antigens on tumour cells with a precision never before available. Monoclonal antibodies have the ability to identify subsets of human T-Iymphocytes and aid in diagnosis of both immunodeficiency disorders such as AIDS, or autoimmune diseases, and they can be adapted as drug targeting agents. Additionally, however, major advances have been made in identifying immunomodulating agents, and...

Therapeutic immunosuppression has very broad applications in clinicalmed icine, ranging from prevention and treatment of organ and bone marrow transplant rejection, management of various autoimmune disorders (e. g. rheumatoid arthritis) skin disease, and asthma. Whereas traditionally, only a small repertoire of immunosuppressive agents was available for clinical use, recent discoveries have significantly increasedthe number ofapproved agents, resulting in numerous trials to further evaluate their potential. In addition, products of the biotechnology industry, - monoclonal antibodies,...