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EDITORIAL article

Front. Oncol., 26 February 2013
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
This article is part of the Research Topic Anti-idiotype antibodies in cancer treatment View all 12 articles

Anti-idiotype antibodies in cancer treatment

  • 1Department of Science and Technology, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • 2Centro de Inmunologia Molecular, La Havana, Cuba

Anti-idiotype antibodies (anti-Id Abs) are antibodies to idiotopes that are located in the variable region, including the antigen binding site, of another antibody. When the last is the case, these anti-Id Abs can act as surrogates of the original antigen. The capability of anti-Id Abs to modulate the immune response has been the basis for the development of anti-Id vaccines against different antigens, including tumor-associated antigens. Over the years, its use in cancer has been demonstrated as effective and promising. This book “Anti-idiotype antibodies in cancer treatment” resumes the latest findings in the field. The book starts with an opinion article by Gomez et al. (2012), whereas the authors discuss a method for prioritization of cancer antigens that paves the way to take more rational, informed decisions in vaccine development. Following, we will find a number of reviews that conform a complete updating on the subject. The first one by Kieber-Emmons et al. (2012) explore the concept of anti-Id Abs with its achievements and drawbacks. Following, Ladjemi (2012) focuses on recent achievements of use of anti-Id Abs as cancer vaccines in solid tumors. López-Requena et al. (2012) focus on the role of anti-Id vaccination in cancer management and on the current developments used to foster anti-idiotypic B and T cell responses. Vázquez et al. (2012a,b) deeply analyze the immunological mechanisms involved in the use of these antibodies, while Vázquez et al. (2012a,b) focus on racotumomab, an anti-Id vaccine already in Phase III clinical trials. Finally, Fredriksen et al. (2012) present a hypothetical model for how the APC-targeted vaccine molecules enhance Id-specific T and B cells. Next, the original article of Segatori et al. (2012) conveys preclinical research on racotumomab with or without chemotherapy, and explores the biological role of N-glycolyl gangiosides in a lung cancer mouse model. Two interesting clinical case studies are also part of this book. First, Llanos et al. (2012) report a maintenance treatment with chemotherapy and immunotherapy in a patient with non-small cell lung cancer. Also, Sampor et al. (2012) present results about the immune response to racotumomab in a child with relapsed neuroblastoma. The book closes with a very interesting article by Gómez and Ardigo (2012), analyzing the pharmaceutical perspective of the development of anti-Id Abs in cancer treatment, with a fresh point of view about the relationship between academy and industry. We as editors were very happy to work with such an excellent group of authors, putting together a book with good quality articles that shed light to the use of anti-Id Abs in cancer. Likewise, we hope it constitutes to the reader interesting material for their fields.

References

Fredriksen, A. B., Sandlie, I., and Bogen, B. (2012). Targeted DNA vaccines for enhanced induction of idiotype-specific B and T cells. Front. Oncol. 2:154. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2012.00154

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Gomez, D. E., Vázquez, A. M., and Alonso, D. F. (2012). Cancer antigen prioritization: a road map to work in defining vaccines against specific targets. A point of view. Front. Oncol. 2:66. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2012.00066

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Gómez, R. E., and Ardigo, M. L. (2012). Anti-idiotype antibodies in cancer treatment: the pharmaceutical industry perspective. Front. Oncol. 2:147. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2012.00147

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Kieber-Emmons, T., Monzavi-Karbassi, B., Pashov, A., Saha, S., Murali, R., and Kohler, H. (2012). The promise of the anti-idiotype concept. Front. Oncol. 2:196. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2012.00196

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Ladjemi, M. Z. (2012). Anti-idiotypic antibodies as cancer vaccines: achievements and future improvements. Front. Oncol. 2:158. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2012.00158

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Llanos, A., Savignano, M., and Cinat, G. (2012). Maintenance treatment with chemotherapy and immunotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer: a case report. Front. Oncol. 2:152. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2012.00152

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López-Requena, A., Burrone, O. R., and Cesco-Gaspere, M. (2012). Idiotypes as immunogens: facing the challenge of inducing strong therapeutic immune responses against the variable region of immunoglobulins. Front. Oncol. 2:159. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2012.00159

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Sampor, C., Guthmann, M. D., Scursoni, A., Cacciavillano, W., Torbidoni, A., Galluzzo, L., et al. (2012). Immune response to racotumomab in a child with relapsed neuroblastoma. Front. Oncol. 2:195. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2012.00195

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Segatori, V. I., Vazquez, A. M., Gomez, D. E., Gabri, M. R., and Alonso, D. F. (2012). Preclinical evaluation of racotumomab, an anti-idiotype monoclonal antibody to N-glycolyl-containing gangliosides, with or without chemotherapy in a mouse model of non-small cell lung cancer. Front. Oncol. 2:160. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2012.00160

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Vázquez, A. M., Hernández, A. M., Macías, A., Montero, E., Gómez, D. E., Alonso, D. F., et al. (2012a). Racotumomab: an anti-idiotype vaccine related to N-glycolyl-containing gangliosides – preclinical and clinical data. Front. Oncol. 2:150. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2012.00150

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Vázquez, A. M. H., Rodríguez-Zhurbenko, N., and López, A. M. V. (2012b). Anti-ganglioside anti-idiotypic vaccination: more than molecular mimicry. Front. Oncol. 2:170. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2012.00170

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Citation: Gomez DE, Vázquez AM, Alonso DF and Macías A (2013) Anti-idiotype antibodies in cancer treatment. Front. Oncol. 3:37. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2013.00037

Received: 01 February 2013; Accepted: 11 February 2013;
Published online: 26 February 2013.

Edited by:

Wolf Hervé Fridman, INSERM, University Paris Descartes, France

Copyright © 2013 Gomez, Vázquez, Alonso and Macías. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and subject to any copyright notices concerning any third-party graphics etc.

*Correspondence: degomez@unq.edu.ar

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