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Use of altered peptide ligands to modulate immune responses as a possible immunotherapy for allergies
Author(s) -
De Palma R.,
Sacerdoti G.,
Abbate G. F.,
Martucci P.,
Mazzarella G.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
allergy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.363
H-Index - 173
eISSN - 1398-9995
pISSN - 0105-4538
DOI - 10.1034/j.1398-9995.2000.00501.x-i1
Subject(s) - allergy , immunotherapy , immune system , immunology , epitope , peptide , antimicrobial peptides , medicine , t cell , biology , computational biology , antigen , biochemistry
Allergies are dramatically increasing in prevalence, and the management of these diseases is a heavy burden on the health‐care systems of developed countries. In recent years, many efforts have been made to improve the therapy of allergies and to develop new approaches for immunotherapy. Here we briefly review the use of peptides to modulate T‐cell responses to allergens. We focus mainly on the possibility of using altered peptide ligands (APLs), i.e., peptides tailored on immunodominant T epitopes and bearing a single amino‐acid substitution, as a tool to modulate immune responses to allergens. These peptides may be recognized by the specific T cells triggered by the agonist peptides, but they are unable to elicit T‐cell responses; thus, they could be ideal candidates to modulate immune responses to allergens. The availability of these peptides could allow new approaches for immunotherapies.