Anti-ganglioside asialo GM₁ (polyclonal antibody)

Anti-ganglioside asialo GM1 (anti-GA1) is very useful in the identification of asialo GM1 and in immunotargeting cells expressing asialo GM1. Several gangliosides have been found to have elevated expressions in tumor cells. Many therapeutic treatments of tumor cells are being investigated using antibodies to target cells that express these elevated levels of gangliosides. However, anti-GA1 has been shown to eliminate natural killer (NK) cell activity, which enhances the incidence of tumor take and growth.3 It also shows slight reactivity with monocytes, macrophages and fetal thymocytes. It appears that the reduction in NK activity is due to membrane damage rather than to cytolytic membrane attack. Due to the inhibition of NK activity anti-GA1 is being pursued as an anti-immunogenic treatment for use in bone marrow transplants and other similar applications.4 Anti-GA1 also suppresses voltage gated calcium channels on the axonal terminals of motor nerves thereby blocking neuromuscular transmission.