New approaches in immunotherapy: allergen vaccination with immunostimulatory DNA.
Despite its success, conventional immunotherapy is saddled with a number of encumbrances. An allergenic vaccine that could reduce allergenicity, maintain immunogenicity, and be given in a few doses would have important therapeutic implications, as millions of patients with poorly controlled allergic rhinitis and asthma would be candidates for such a form of immunomodulation. This article addresses a specific adjuvant approach to immunotherapy in which highly active immunostimulatory phosphorothioate oligodeoxyribonucleotide moieties are linked to the principal allergenic moiety of a relevant aeroallergen.
Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Asthma and Allergy Center, Johns Hopkins University, 5501 Hopkins Bayview Circle, Room 2B, 71, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA. pcretic@jhmi.edu
Peter Socrates
PS
Creticos
Yi-Hsing
YH
Chen
John T
JT
Schroeder
D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003888:Desensitization, Immunologic / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018417:Th1 Cells / Q000276:immunology; D018418:Th2 Cells / Q000276:immunology; D014611:Vaccination
D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; C408982:CPG-oligonucleotide; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides