Immunospecific drug design--prospects for treatment of autoimmune diseases.

Abstract

Recent advances in elucidating the activation and regulation of the autoimmune processes have provided new approaches for selective immunotherapy. Three different strategies are described: autoantigen-based therapy utilizing immunospecifically designed macromolecules and peptides, T-suppressor lines and clones, as well as antibodies specific to the antigen-MHC complex. These modalities, the efficacy of which has been demonstrated for experimental allergic encephalomyelitis, may be adapted to other experimental as well as human autoimmune diseases.