A sulfur-containing hapten was proposed to be an analogue of the tetrahedral transition state of lactamization reactions. The dynamics of the immune response to this hapten upon using different immunization schemes was studied. Sixty-one clones of mouse anti-hapten antibodies were obtained. Three clones efficiently bound not only the transition state analogue (the hapten) but also potential substrates of lactamization reactions. Antibody-induced changes in the optical absorption spectra of substrate solutions were studied for a substrate with stabilized active conformation (2-aminomethylbenzoate) and an unmodified substrate (gamma-aminobutyric acid), which demonstrated that the catalytic antibodies obtained significantly accelerated the lactam ring formation.