Nuevas perspectivas en inmunoterapia

Stimulating the immune system for therapeutic purposes has become one of modern medicine’s most important challenges. The possibilities offered by immunotherapy are wide ranging, from the treatment of cancers and other diseases to the prevention of infections such as HIV or malaria. In a new Esteve Foundation Monograph, eleven experts from different fields and institutions present their latest research in immunotherapy following their participation in a Round table organized by the Foundation in Barcelona along with 16 other professionals.

Manel Juan, from the immunology department of Hospital Clínic Barcelona and President of the Catalan Society of Immunology, chaired the roundtable discussion and coordinated this publication, which includes the papers presented during the meeting and subsequent discussions. For the researcher, immunotherapy continues to have areas of weakness that need to be addressed and resolved, but at the same time “there are important strengths and opportunities that could lead to a future in which immunotherapy may exceed the spectacular achievements of conventional pharmacology.”

The monograph New Perspectives on Immunotherapy addresses the strengths and weaknesses of treatment from a multidisciplinary perspective. On the one hand, it presents the latest advances in therapeutic vaccines such as by those working on HIV treatment. Montserrat Plana, from the laboratory of retrovirology and viral immunopathogenesis at IDIBAPS (August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute), explores different vaccination strategies to limit the time, adverse effects and cost of drug therapy.

Pedro Alonso, from the Centre for International Health Research (CRESIB) outlines the current state of development of vaccines against malaria, a disease that causes more than 600,000 deaths annually. Alberto Sanchez-Fueyo, also from IDIBAPS, discusses how to prevent rejection in organ transplantation, in particular in the case of liver transplants, in a new field of study.

The second section of the monograph examines various applications of immunotherapy, such as to curb inflammatory response (Daniel Benitez-Ribas, IDIBAPS); to induce antitumor response, in this case in metastatic melanoma (Antoni Ribas, University of California); to block allergies (Luis Graça, University of Lisbon); and for the treatment of diseases such as celiac (Francisco Leon, Centocor) and multiple sclerosis (Mireia Sospedra, Institute for Neuroimmunology and Clinical MS-Research).

New Perspectives on Immunotherapy also includes a third section on methodology in general, the production of monoclonal antibodies (by Luis Alvarez-Vallina, Puerta de Hierro Hospital), and opportunities offered by nanotechnology (by Africa Gonzalez-Fernandez, University of Vigo).