ABSTRACT
Conventional vaccines consisting of live attenuated or killed whole organisms or partly purified microbial agents have largely controlled many infectious diseases thereby confirming their clinical usefulness. Idiyotype (Id) vaccination has been successfully applied in several experimental models of bacterial, viral, and parasitic infections. Various experimental models of viral infections have been reported in which administration of anti-Ids confers protection against infection. The anti-Id is also active across species barriers and induces protection against infection with live reovirus. Reovirus infection in mice has been studied using anti-Ids raised to antireovirus hemag-glutinin antibodies. Parasite infections present problems in the field of vaccine development, as some of these diseases evoke dysfunction of the immune response and the protective antigenic epitopes are as yet poorly defined. There have been reports of auto-anti-Id production in mice following parasite infections and these suggest a role for network-mediated modulation of responses which could be used in vaccine development.
