Idiotypic vaccines and infectious diseases

Abstract

The experimental studies reviewed here indicate that idiotypic vaccines are promising alternatives to conventional vaccines. This is especially the case when the protective antigen of the infectious agent is a polysaccharide or the carbohydrate moiety of a glycoprotein. It is also an interesting approach when the antigen involved is either difficult to isolate or unavailable, as well as when a synthetic peptide results in unsuccessful vaccination because it does not present the tertiary structure of the antigen.