Neue Vakzinierungsstrategien in der Immundermatologie und Allergologie

Abstract

Classical vaccination regimens play an important role against the spread of infectious agents or for the treatment of existing malignancies. The common goal of these vaccination efforts is to induce and maintain antigen-specific immunity including a robust memory response. However, in the recent years vaccination strategies have been developed, which aim to modulate and regulate immune responses. A growing body of evidence exists that different vaccination methods can even be used to suppress an ongoing immune response. These data built the rationale for the new development of immunosuppressive therapies for a safe, effective and well-tolerated treatment of organ-specific autoimmune diseases in dermatology and other clinical fields. Dendritic cells play a prominent role in this context since they not only activate but are also able to modulate and regulate the effector function ofT cells. Dendritic cells have already been successfully used for the experimental treatment of autoimmune diseases in animal models. Dendritic cells can induce, stimulate and expand regulatory/suppressor T cells, which in turn actively inhibit effector T cells. Moreover, dendritic cells have been recently used in vivo to modulate an anti-viral immune response in humans. Therefore, dendritic cells appear to be promising tools for the development of new vaccination strategies which target the downregulation of (auto)immunity. In this article the latest experimental data on the use of dendritic cells for the induction of immunotolerance and the regulation of immunity are discussed in light of the recent literature.