What is Immunotherapy?

Immunotherapy (immunotherapy) is a treatment method that refers to the low or excessive immune state of the body, artificially enhancing or suppressing the body's immune function to achieve the purpose of treating diseases. There are many methods of immunotherapy, which are applicable to the treatment of many diseases. Tumor immunotherapy is designed to activate the human immune system and rely on autoimmune functions to kill cancer cells and tumor tissues. Different from previous surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and targeted therapy, the target of immunotherapy is not tumor cells and tissues, but the body's own immune system.

Basic Information

Chinese name

immunity therapy

Foreign name

Immunotherapy

Classification of immunotherapy

There are multiple classification methods for immunotherapy, and there are crossovers between them.

1. According to the effect on the body's immune function, it can be divided into immune enhancement therapy and immunosuppressive therapy.

2. According to the specificity of treatment, it can be divided into specific immunotherapy and non-specific immunotherapy.

3. According to the characteristics of the immune preparations, it can be divided into active immunotherapy and passive immunotherapy.

4. According to the preparation used for treatment, it can be divided into molecular therapy, cell therapy and immunomodulator therapy.

Immunotherapy preparation

Molecular therapy

Molecular therapy refers to the introduction of molecular preparations to the body to regulate the body's specific immune response.

(1) Antibodies include polyclonal antibodies, monoclonal antibodies and genetically engineered antibodies.

(2) Molecular vaccines include recombinant vector vaccines, synthetic peptide vaccines and DNA vaccines, which can be used as therapeutic vaccines for tumors and infectious diseases.

(3) Cytokines Including exogenous cytokines, which can be used for the treatment of diseases such as tumors, infections, and hematopoietic disorders. Cytokine antagonism therapy prevents cytokines from exerting biological effects by inhibiting the production of cytokines, preventing cytokines from binding to the corresponding receptors, or blocking signal transduction after binding.

2. Cell Therapy

Cell therapy refers to the introduction of cellular preparations into the body to activate or enhance the body's specific immune response.

(1) Cell vaccines Including tumor cell vaccines (such as inactivated tumor vaccines, heterogeneous tumor vaccines, etc.), genetically modified tumor vaccines and dendritic cell vaccines.

(2) Stem cell transplantation Stem cells have the ability of self-renewal and various differentiation potentials, and can be induced to differentiate into a variety of cell tissues, such as cord blood, peripheral blood, bone marrow, etc. under appropriate conditions.

(3) Adoptive immune cell therapy The autologous lymphocytes are activated and proliferated in vitro and returned to the patient to directly kill the tumor or stimulate the body's anti-tumor immune effect.

3. Immunomodulatory therapy

(1) Biological response modifiers usually have no effect on those with normal immune function, but they can promote or regulate abnormal immune function, especially those with low immune function. It mainly includes microorganism preparations, such as BCG, Corynebacterium brevis, typhoid lipopolysaccharide, low-streptococcus strains, propionibacteria, etc .; hormones, such as thymosin, thymosin and so on.

(2) Immunosuppressants can inhibit the body's immune function, and are often used in the treatment of autoimmune diseases and to prevent transplant rejection. Including chemically synthesized drugs, such as glucocorticoids, cyclophosphamide, azathioprine, and so on; microbial preparations, such as cyclosporine, tacrolimus, sirolimus, and morphomecopolate.