Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016 Feb;137(2):351-7.
doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2015.12.1299.

Vaccine development for allergen-specific immunotherapy based on recombinant allergens and synthetic allergen peptides: Lessons from the past and novel mechanisms of action for the future

Rudolf Valenta  1 , Raffaela Campana  2 , Margit Focke-Tejkl  2 , Verena Niederberger  3
Affiliations
Review

Vaccine development for allergen-specific immunotherapy based on recombinant allergens and synthetic allergen peptides: Lessons from the past and novel mechanisms of action for the future

Rudolf Valenta et al. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2016 Feb.

Abstract

In the past, the development of more effective, safe, convenient, broadly applicable, and easy to manufacture vaccines for allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT) has been limited by the poor quality of natural allergen extracts. Progress made in the field of molecular allergen characterization has now made it possible to produce defined vaccines for AIT and eventually for preventive allergy vaccination based on recombinant DNA technology and synthetic peptide chemistry. Here we review the characteristics of recombinant and synthetic allergy vaccines that have reached clinical evaluation and discuss how molecular vaccine approaches can make AIT more safe and effective and thus more convenient. Furthermore, we discuss how new technologies can facilitate the reproducible manufacturing of vaccines of pharmaceutical grade for inhalant, food, and venom allergens. Allergy vaccines in clinical trials based on recombinant allergens, recombinant allergen derivatives, and synthetic peptides allow us to target selectively different immune mechanisms, and certain of those show features that might make them applicable not only for therapeutic but also for prophylactic vaccination.

Keywords: Allergy; allergen; allergen-specific immunotherapy; allergy vaccine; preventive allergy vaccine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIG 1
FIG 1
Requirements for improved allergy vaccines.
FIG 2
FIG 2
Steps toward improvement of allergy vaccines.
FIG 3
FIG 3
Schematic representation of the development of BM32, a recombinant B-cell epitope–based grass pollen allergy vaccine.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Noon L. Prophylactic inoculation against hay fever. Lancet. 1911;1:1572–3.
    1. Dunbar WP. Zur Frage betreffend die Ätiologie und spezifische Therapie des Heufiebers. Berliner klin. Wochenschr. 1903;24:6.
    1. Cooke RA, Barnard JH, Hebald S, Stull A. Serological evidence of immunity coexisting sensitization in a type of human allergy (hay fever) J Exp Med. 1935;62:733–50. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Larche M, Akdis CA, Valenta R. Immunological mechanisms of allergen-specific immunotherapy. Nat Rev Immunol. 2006;6:761–71. - PubMed
    1. Bousquet J, Lockey R, Malling HJ. Allergen immunotherapy: therapeutic vaccines for allergic diseases. A WHO position paper. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 1998;102:558–62. - PubMed

MeSH terms