title: Prospects for vaccines for allergic and other immunologic skin disorders.
abstract: The human skin hosts a variety of immune response-associated components that together form the skin immune system. Any abnormality in the functioning of the skin immune system leads to a variety of dermatologic complications, including dermatitis, psoriasis, and eczema. Exposure to antigens/allergens can lead to allergic skin disorders such as atopic dermatitis, urticaria, and allergic contact dermatitis. Recent investigations have provided new insights into the immunologic processes leading to the development of skin diseases. T cells play a central role in the activation and regulation of immune responses by recognizing antigen and inducing cytokine production. Despite advances in the understanding of the immunologic events leading to the development of skin diseases, no effective prevention measure exists. Current therapeutic treatments are based on either alleviating the symptoms or suppressing the immune system with immunosuppressive drugs. Allergen-specific immunotherapy is expected to induce specific T cells that abolish allergen-induced proliferation of T helper cells, as well as their cytokine production. Recent approaches using recombinant protein, polycytosine guanine oligonucleotides, and plasmid DNA for vaccination suggest the possibility of protection against these skin disorders. The involvement of T cells in psoriasis indicates that the development of a T-cell receptor peptide vaccine may be beneficial. Dendritic cell-based vaccines using tolerogenic dendritic cells that can induce T-cell tolerance have been shown to be useful in dealing with autoimmune disorders and allergic conditions. In the light of these developments, this article presents the current status and prospects of developing vaccines for allergic and other immunologic skin disorders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota 58105, USA.
authors.forename: Babu M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Medi
authors.forename: Jagdish
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Singh
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007154:Immune System Diseases / Q000276:immunology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D007114:Immunization / Q000379:methods*; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000276:immunology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014612:Vaccines
chemical_list: D014612:Vaccines