Vaccination against allergy Ulla Seppälä, PhD

Vaccination against allergy

• Ulla Seppälä, PhD

• Vaccine Research

What is Allergy ?

Most common sources of inhalant allergens

Vespid & Bee venom allergens

Allergens and Allergen Diagnostics

What is allergy vaccination ?

Anergy = clonal silence or actual clonal deletion of allergen-reactive T-cells

• Anergy = clonal silence or actual clonal deletion of allergen-reactive T-cells

• Immunoregulation-induced immune deviation, leading into different cytokine milieu in a target tissue

Targeting the therapeutic tools ?

Therapeutical recombinant proteins / rDNAs

Formulation of allergen vaccines by use of various adjuvants

• Aluminium hydroxide

• Bacterial origin mucosal adjuvants

• CpG ODN,
• Monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL)
• Cholera toxin /CT (Vibrio cholera), entero toxin /LT (Escherichia coli)

• Carbohydrates / (CBPs)

• Microencapsulated allergen vaccines

How to monitor allergen immunotherapy ?

• improved clinical phenotype
• serum IgE / IgG4 –levels IgE / IgG4
• decrease in number of mast cells and eosinophils after allergen provocation
• modified and/or reduced production of cytokines
• BIOMARKERS ? !

How to monitor allergen immunotherapy ?

”Genomics and proteomics of allergic disease”

• Identification of the disease genes; for design of new classes of anti-inflammatory compounds

• Identification of expression and function of proteins; to obtain increased knowledge of mechanisms underlying allergic disease

• Identifiction of novel biomarkers

Microarray technology

Microarray technology

Proteomics technology

Proteomics in Allergy Research

Identification of the disease genes or biomarkers

Biomarker discovery: PEPTIDOMICS

• Peptides are ideal candidates for biomarkers

• Isolation/ measurement of biomarkers from blood - clinical application

• Proteases liberate biomarkers – processing and specific degradation products – discovery tool !

• Hormones
• Cytokines
• Growth factors
• etc.

Conclusions