Therapeutic vaccines for hypertension and dyslipidemia.

Vaccines are commonly used as a preventive medicine for infectious diseases worldwide, however, clinical trials on an amyloid beta vaccine for Alzheimer's disease represents a new concept in the field of vaccinations. Several recent studies indicate the potential of therapeutic vaccines as well as classical vaccines as preventive medicines. A number of therapeutic vaccines for cancer have been developed as novel immunotherapies. Their targets are usually specific antigens in cancer cells, allowing activated cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) to attach and remove the antigen-presenting cancer cells. Recently, we and others have attempted to develop a therapeutic vaccine against hypertension. The vaccine target is angiotensin II (AngII), and induced anti-AngII antibodies could efficiently ameliorate high blood pressure. However, because AngII is an endogenous hormone, we must avoid the induction of autoimmune diseases by administration of an AngII vaccine. Therefore, our system was used to design a therapeutic vaccine that elicits anti-AngII antibodies without CTL activation against AngII. Because the target antigen itself does not include T cell epitopes, the immunogenic molecule (ie, KLH) provides antigen that supports the activation of T cells. In particular, helper T cells may activate B cells that produce antibodies against our specific antigen. In this review, we will explain our concept of therapeutic vaccines based on our recent data.