Active immunotherapy for chronic diseases

With the effective control of infectious diseases in many parts of the world, chronic, non-communicable diseases have become the major cause of death and disability. Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have become an important class of drugs for the treatment of such diseases. Nevertheless, mAbs suffer from major shortcomings in a chronic setting: most notably, generation of anti-antibodies and high cost of goods. Here, we discuss a novel approach to treat chronic diseases based on active rather than passive immunization and contrast the 2 treatment modalities to highlight their respective advantages and disadvantages. Crown Copyright (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.