Anti-idiotypic antibodies as vaccines against carbohydrate antigens

Conclusions In 1981 Nisonoff and Lamoyi [24] and Roitt and co-workers [28] suggested that internal image or anti-idiotypic antibodies might be exploited as a new type of vaccine. The anti-idiotype vaccine concept seemed a particularly attractive approach to convert the T-independent carbohydrate antigens into T-dependent antigens.A number of anti-idiotypic antibodies which act as surrogates of carbohydrate antigens have been developed in various laboratories. Other than being internal images of carbohydrate epitopes these anti-idiotypes seem to have little in common. Some are non-protective, some are effective priming agents only and some continue to act as T-independent antigens.The lack of uniformity of these anti-idiotypes is merely a reflection of our limited understanding of the immune system and its interaction with T-independent antigens. Despite the development of fairly effective immunogenic conjugate vaccines the potential application of anti-idiotype vaccines should not be underestimated. These vaccines continue to be of interest in a number of areas. Anti-idiotype vaccines may be converted into thermostable, inexpensive peptide vaccines, especially advantageous in third world countries. Anti-idiotype vaccines may prove to be efficacious in certain genetically defined populations where the conjugate vaccines fail to elicit antibodies [42].Finally, anti-idiotypic antibodies may be extremely useful tools in our understanding of T cell-dependent and -independent B cell activation.