English

Suffix

-mab

1. (pharmacology) monoclonal antibody

Usage notes

USAN guidelines for non-proprietary names of monoclonal antibodies are as follows:

• an arbitrary prefix to create a unique name (officially monosyllabic)
• a suffix for the disease state
• a suffix for the animal source
• -mab to identify it as a monoclonal antibody (MAb)

The source suffixes are as follows:

-a- for rat-derived,

-e- for hamster,

-i- for primate,

-o- for mouse,

-u- for human,

-xi- for chimeric,

-zu- for humanized,

-xizu- for humanized and chimeric,

-axo- for rat-mouse hybrid.

The disease target suffixes are:

-vir- viral,

-bac- bacterial,

-lim- immune system, immunomodulator,

-les- infectious lesions,

-cir- cardiovascular

-col- colon tumor,

-mel- melanoma,

-mar- mammary tumor,

-got- testicular (gonad) tumor,

-gov- ovarian (gonad) tumor,

-pro- prostate tumor,

-tum- other tumors, or combinations of the above;

-ner- nervous system,

-kin- interleukin,

-mul- muscoskeletal,

-os- bone,

-toxa- toxin,

-fung- fungus

Other attested target affixes are -anibi- and -neur-. The target affix takes the primary stress.

For instance, capromab is a murine MAb that targets prostate cancer; imiciromab pentatate is used to target myocardial infarctions; satumomab pendetide is used for both colorectal and ovarian cancers.

For humanized (-zu-) and chimeric (-xi-) MAbs (and -xizu-), the final consonant of the target suffix is dropped, and for all others the o of -pro- and the a of -toxa- is dropped: natalizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody used in the treatment of multiple sclerosis (an immunological disease).

Derived terms

• natalizumab
• cetuximab
• panitumumab

Related terms

• -ab
• -pab for polyclonal antibodies
• -tinib for tyrosine kinase inhibitors

References

• USP Dictionary of USAN and International Drug Names, U.S. Pharmacopeia, 2000
• AMA (USAN) Monoclonal antibodies, USAN, 2007