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Vaccines 86 — New Approaches to Immunization
,Book Reviews Regulatory Idiotopes: Modern Concepts in Immunology Vol. 2
Constantin A. Bona, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, 1987, 279 pp., ISBN 047-182-8823, £57.45 It is almost thirty years since the original and far-reaching experiments of Oudin, Kunkel and others first led to the concept of unique epitopes on immunogiobulins, the so-called 'idiotopes'. Since that time the magnitude of general awareness of research progress in this intriguing area has followed a cyclical profile reminiscent of idiotypeantiidiotype regulation itself. There was a peak of activity in the late 1970s following Jerne's promulgation of idiotypic recognition as axiomatic to his network theory of immunoregulation, but during the 1980s events were eclipsed by the more spectacular successes of molecular biologists in other parts of the immunological arena. Recently, however, there has been an upsurge of interest in the practical application of antiidiotypes, particularly those which act as internal images of antigens, not only amongst those concerned with synthetic vaccines for the prevention of infectious diseases, but also amongst endocrinologists and others involved in studies of cellular receptor structure and function, where their potential use as surrogate hormones has been established. The ultimate success of these approaches hinges critically on a thorough understanding of the regulatory phenomena involved. This book has therefore made a timely appearance. This is the second volume in a new series entitled 'Modern Concepts in Immunology', edited by the author of this particular monograph. It is therefore not surprising that much of the data cited originates in the author's own laboratory which, in places, gives a somewhat narrow perspective on the field. By way of introduction, the first chapter summarizes what is known about the genetic organization of antigen receptors of T and B lymphocytes. It is relatively brief and already rather incomplete. This is followed by a chapter which defines idiotypes and lists a number of systems from several differ-
ent species which are referred to subsequently. Chapter three deals briefly with structural correlates of idiotopes but is followed by an extensive account of the polymorphism of antigen specificity exhibited by some of them. Two chapters deal with network theory and, despite the book's title, it is only in the subsequent two chapters that the topic of regulatory idiotopes first emerges. The author draws heavily on his own data from the ABPC 48 Balb/c
myeloma system. The volume concludes with two chapters on the clinical relevance of idiotypic regulation devoted to a consideration of immunity to tumours and various autoimmune phenomena. The book is well organized and clearly written and contains an excellent bibliography of over 600 publications. For newcomers to the field and established researchers alike it provides a very useful catalogue of facts and references, but for the idly curious it is likely to be less of a good read.
Chris Morrison
Biovet Unit, Ciba-Geigy, Switzerland
Vaccines 86 - New Approaches to Immunization Editors: F. Brown, R.M. Chanock and R.A. Lerner, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1986, 418 pp., $275, ISBN 0-8796-9190-5 Quality is almost irrelevant with regards to this book. If you are concerned with vaccines at any level then you need this volume because it is an almost unique 'state of the art' collection of papers on the most current issues. Having categorically stated the need for such a book I am also glad to say that it contains many high quality chapters. In fact there are 66 short chapters (five to six pages long) which give an indication of the scope of this volume. The presentation, including high quality photographs and figures, is uniformly excellent. The papers are grouped together by the subject topics of the third meeting on Modern Approaches to Vaccines held at Cold Spring Harbor, reflecting both the traditional and the new issues. Thus there are selections on antigenantibody reaction and AIDS retroviruses to mark the current problems. The necessity of reaching a better understanding of the immunological responses associated with infection before being able to design a suitable vaccine are stressed. Additional sections include Malaria, Bacterial Vaccines, Viral Pathogenesis, Viral Vectors and Flaviviruses. A final summary chapter thoroughly highlights progress and
problems in all these topics and thus not only provides an excellent postscript, but makes the reviewer's job that much easier. Not that I am suggesting reviewers need not read the book but the 400 pages of hard facts on such a wide divergence of topics cannot all be digested in one go indicating that the book has a dual function: firstly as an up-to-date overview and secondly as a reference volume. The author of the summary chapter stresses the importance of current work on the nature of viral immunogens and the three-dimensional structure that is necessary for their biological activity. I too must echo this enthusiasm for the chapters presented on this topic relating to poliovirus. The conclusion reached was that 'work on the structure of virus particles and the messages it contains in terms of immunogenicity, coupled with an increasing understanding of the immunological response at the molecular level, must hold the key to future vaccines'. I am sure if you read this bouk you too will be impressed by this argument and the quality of the presentations.
J.B. Griffiths
Erratum
Anti-idiotype antibodies as immunogens: idiotype-based vaccines. A.G. Dalgleish and R.C. Kennedy, Vaccine, 1988, 6, 215--220 Page 220, lines 19 and 21: the w o r d 'retrovirus' should be replaced by 'reovirus'
Vaccine, Vol. 6, August 1988 381
Constantin A. Bona, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, 1987, 279 pp., ISBN 047-182-8823, £57.45 It is almost thirty years since the original and far-reaching experiments of Oudin, Kunkel and others first led to the concept of unique epitopes on immunogiobulins, the so-called 'idiotopes'. Since that time the magnitude of general awareness of research progress in this intriguing area has followed a cyclical profile reminiscent of idiotypeantiidiotype regulation itself. There was a peak of activity in the late 1970s following Jerne's promulgation of idiotypic recognition as axiomatic to his network theory of immunoregulation, but during the 1980s events were eclipsed by the more spectacular successes of molecular biologists in other parts of the immunological arena. Recently, however, there has been an upsurge of interest in the practical application of antiidiotypes, particularly those which act as internal images of antigens, not only amongst those concerned with synthetic vaccines for the prevention of infectious diseases, but also amongst endocrinologists and others involved in studies of cellular receptor structure and function, where their potential use as surrogate hormones has been established. The ultimate success of these approaches hinges critically on a thorough understanding of the regulatory phenomena involved. This book has therefore made a timely appearance. This is the second volume in a new series entitled 'Modern Concepts in Immunology', edited by the author of this particular monograph. It is therefore not surprising that much of the data cited originates in the author's own laboratory which, in places, gives a somewhat narrow perspective on the field. By way of introduction, the first chapter summarizes what is known about the genetic organization of antigen receptors of T and B lymphocytes. It is relatively brief and already rather incomplete. This is followed by a chapter which defines idiotypes and lists a number of systems from several differ-
ent species which are referred to subsequently. Chapter three deals briefly with structural correlates of idiotopes but is followed by an extensive account of the polymorphism of antigen specificity exhibited by some of them. Two chapters deal with network theory and, despite the book's title, it is only in the subsequent two chapters that the topic of regulatory idiotopes first emerges. The author draws heavily on his own data from the ABPC 48 Balb/c
myeloma system. The volume concludes with two chapters on the clinical relevance of idiotypic regulation devoted to a consideration of immunity to tumours and various autoimmune phenomena. The book is well organized and clearly written and contains an excellent bibliography of over 600 publications. For newcomers to the field and established researchers alike it provides a very useful catalogue of facts and references, but for the idly curious it is likely to be less of a good read.
Chris Morrison
Biovet Unit, Ciba-Geigy, Switzerland
Vaccines 86 - New Approaches to Immunization Editors: F. Brown, R.M. Chanock and R.A. Lerner, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1986, 418 pp., $275, ISBN 0-8796-9190-5 Quality is almost irrelevant with regards to this book. If you are concerned with vaccines at any level then you need this volume because it is an almost unique 'state of the art' collection of papers on the most current issues. Having categorically stated the need for such a book I am also glad to say that it contains many high quality chapters. In fact there are 66 short chapters (five to six pages long) which give an indication of the scope of this volume. The presentation, including high quality photographs and figures, is uniformly excellent. The papers are grouped together by the subject topics of the third meeting on Modern Approaches to Vaccines held at Cold Spring Harbor, reflecting both the traditional and the new issues. Thus there are selections on antigenantibody reaction and AIDS retroviruses to mark the current problems. The necessity of reaching a better understanding of the immunological responses associated with infection before being able to design a suitable vaccine are stressed. Additional sections include Malaria, Bacterial Vaccines, Viral Pathogenesis, Viral Vectors and Flaviviruses. A final summary chapter thoroughly highlights progress and
problems in all these topics and thus not only provides an excellent postscript, but makes the reviewer's job that much easier. Not that I am suggesting reviewers need not read the book but the 400 pages of hard facts on such a wide divergence of topics cannot all be digested in one go indicating that the book has a dual function: firstly as an up-to-date overview and secondly as a reference volume. The author of the summary chapter stresses the importance of current work on the nature of viral immunogens and the three-dimensional structure that is necessary for their biological activity. I too must echo this enthusiasm for the chapters presented on this topic relating to poliovirus. The conclusion reached was that 'work on the structure of virus particles and the messages it contains in terms of immunogenicity, coupled with an increasing understanding of the immunological response at the molecular level, must hold the key to future vaccines'. I am sure if you read this bouk you too will be impressed by this argument and the quality of the presentations.
J.B. Griffiths
Erratum
Anti-idiotype antibodies as immunogens: idiotype-based vaccines. A.G. Dalgleish and R.C. Kennedy, Vaccine, 1988, 6, 215--220 Page 220, lines 19 and 21: the w o r d 'retrovirus' should be replaced by 'reovirus'
Vaccine, Vol. 6, August 1988 381