Anti-idiotypes and autoimmune disease

Abstract

Idiotypes represent structural sites located on the Fab fragment of antibodies. Even though these sites are combining sites for antigenic determinant, their uniqueness makes them antigenic, generating anti-Ids that have functionally performed as suppressive agents for the further production of the antibody. Jerne's network theory of idiotypes has provided a basis upon which investigators have searched for means to reduce, or explain the reduction of, Ab production. A principal area of this reduction of Ab expression concerns the autoAbs in autoimmune diseases. Experimental and clinical evidence suggests a role for anti-Ids in suppressing autoAb production and an inverse relationship between serum levels of anti-Ids and autoimmune disease activity.