[Immunomodulatory therapy of autoimmune diseases : Quo vadis?]

Immunomodulatory therapy is the gold standard in the treatment of autoimmune diseases. Increasing knowledge of the underlying mechanisms leading to autoimmunity enables patients to be treated with better and more specific therapies apart from the classical therapies, such as antimalarial drugs and glucocorticoids. For patients this nowadays means a great chance to receive optimized therapy. Numerous treatment options have been developed over the last decades and the development of new treatment approaches and strategies is still ongoing. This review gives an overview of immunomodulatory therapy approaches.