A modified vaccination technique for the prevention and treatment of an experimental autoimmune kidney disease.

The main purpose of this article is to introduce a promising new vaccination technique and to outline its efficacy and safety as demonstrated in an experimental autoimmune kidney disease. We have found that antigen (AG)-specific downregulation and/or upregulation of immune responses can be achieved by injections of immune complexes (ICs) which contain prepackaged information. This result is attained with the new vaccination method, a method developed in our laboratory which we have called "modified vaccination technique" (MVT). This MVT not only enables the prevention of pathogenic autoimmune events leading to the development of an experimental autoimmune kidney disease; it also allows, with equal effectiveness, therapeutic intervention to terminate the disease. With an injected IC containing predetermined immune response-inducing components, the process effectuates a specific antibody information transfer conferring advantages that go beyond its prophylactic and therapeutic applicability. Its specificity can induce a precise immune response to correct mishaps, for example, in conditions where the immune system overreacts to an autologous antigen or fails to recognize unwanted self (as in autoimmune disorders, cancer, etc.) Preformed ICs are nontoxic and nonirritant, evoke a predetermined antibody response without the use of adjuvants, cause no disturbance in the overall regulatory function of the immune system, and produce no side effects. We firmly believe that proper implementation of the MVT will be able to induce and maintain specific preventive and/or curative responses in a way that is both natural and more effective in patients with chronic ailments presently treatable only with drugs.