TY - JOUR T1 - Therapeutic vaccines: Realities of today and hopes for tomorrow JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences JO - Proc Natl Acad Sci USA SP - 14559 LP - 14559 DO - 10.1073/pnas.0405924101 VL - 101 IS - suppl 2 AU - Sela, Michael AU - Hilleman, Maurice R. Y1 - 2004/10/05 UR - http://www.pnas.org/content/101/suppl_2/14559.abstract N2 - Vaccines are prophylactic in the sense that they are administered to healthy individuals to prevent a disease. Nevertheless, there is a growing trend to use vaccines to alleviate the suffering of those already with disease. Great effort is being devoted to developing therapeutic vaccines against tumors, AIDS, hepatitis B, tuberculosis, malaria, and possibly against the bacteria that cause gastric ulcers. Copolymer 1 (glatiramer acetate), used today as a therapeutic vaccine against multiple sclerosis, is a good example of a beneficial treatment for this autoimmune disease, based on its similarity to the myelin basic protein, one of the putative causes of multiple sclerosis. This finding could lead to therapeutic vaccines against other autoimmune diseases such as myasthenia gravis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis. Furthermore, current studies raise hope for vaccines against prion diseases, bovine spongiform encephalitis, and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. Passive antibodies against a peptide derived from β-amyloid plaques might be able to degrade plaques and be used as a therapeutic vaccine against Alzheimer's disease.Preventive vaccines carry immunologic specificity for individual infective disease agents and provoke an immune response against them. It is a hope, if not … ER -