A monoclonal antibody with potential for aiding non-invasive prenatal diagnosis: Utility in screening of pregnant women at risk of preeclampsia

The development of a non-invasive method of prenatal diagnosis in maternal blood has been the goal of our investigations during the last years. We have developed several anti-CD71 monoclonal antibodies and optimized a protocol for the isolation of nucleated red blood cells (NRBC) from peripheral maternal blood. The enhanced traffic of fetal erythroblasts into the maternal circulation in preeclampsia has been investigated by several groups. In this study, we compared one of our antibodies, 2F6.3, with a commercial anti-CD71 antibody in blood samples from pregnant women suffering pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) and in a control group of pregnant women without clinical features suggestive of an increased risk of developing preeclampsia. The mAb 2F6.3, developed by our group, has succeeded in isolating a significantly higher number of erythroblasts with less maternal cell contamination than the commercial antibody in both women with PIH and in the control group (p<0.01; Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test). Florescence in situ hybridization analysis also demonstrated that 2F6.3 is a better antibody for the isolation of fetal NRBC in maternal blood than the commercial anti-CD71 antibody.