Abstract
Current treatments for autoimmune diseases do not address the immune pathology underlying their initiation and progression and too often rely on non-specific immunosuppressive drugs for control of symptoms. Antigen-specific immunotherapy aims to induce tolerance selectively among the cells causing the disease while leaving the rest of the adaptive immune system capable of protecting against infectious diseases and cancers. Here we describe how novel approaches for antigen-specific immunotherapy are designed to manipulate antigen presentation and promote tolerance to specific self-antigens. This analysis points to liver antigen presenting cells, targeted by carrier particles, and steady-state dendritic cells, to which antigen-processing independent T-cell epitopes (apitopes) bind directly, as the principal targets for antigen-specific immunotherapy. Delivery of antigens to these cells holds great promise for effective control of this rapidly expanding group of diseases.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 75-81 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Current Opinion in Immunology |
Volume | 70 |
Early online date | 18 Apr 2021 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jun 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Copyright © 2021 The Authors.Keywords
- Animals
- Antigen Presentation/immunology
- Antigen-Presenting Cells/immunology
- Autoimmune Diseases/immunology
- Humans