Balancing immunity and immunosuppression: vaccinating patients receiving treatment with efalizumab

Shana Marmon1, Bruce E Strober2

  • 1Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA.

Although effective in the treatment of immunodysregulatory diseases such as psoriasis, targeted immunosuppressive agents may confer risks of both enhanced susceptibility to infection and decreased responsiveness to vaccination. In a recent study, Krueger et al. (this issue) investigated these issues by testing the immune response to both a model antigen and a therapeutic vaccination in psoriasis patients during and after treatment with an LFA-1 inhibitor, efalizumab.

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