ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews different approaches of using anti-Id antibody for the modulation of the immune response to a number of relevant human and animal virus infections. Based upon the network concept of the immune system initially proposed by N. K. Jerne, have implicated the exploitation of elements of the immune system itself — antiidiotype (anti-Id) antibodies — to replace "external" antigens for vaccination. However, in the reovirus III system and in the Sendai virus system, it was shown that MoAb2 directed to either a B- or a T-cell idiotope induced both a B- and T-cell-mediated antiviral immunity, which in the latter also proved to be protective against virus challenge. The first report on a candidate internal image in a viral system came, from Urbain's group using antitobacco mosaic virus (TMV) capsid protein as an antigen. They described a rabbit Ab2 which recognized an interspecies cross-reacting Id present on anti-TMV antibodies from rabbits, mice, horses, goats, and chickens immunized with TMV.
