Matthias Brewer: Tolerance instead of suppression, Kartoniert / Broschiert

Klappentext

For decades, the immune system has been seen as a target for activation or suppression. Vaccines are designed to boost it, while immunosuppressants are meant to slow it down. But what if disease doesn't come from too much or too little immunity-but from a false memory? Inverse vaccination represents a fundamental paradigm shift in immunotherapy. Instead of blocking inflammation across the board or globally suppressing the immune system, this approach pursues a more precise goal: the targeted restoration of immunological tolerance to clearly defined antigens. Not suppression, but relearning. Not short-term effects, but sustainable disease modification. This book traces the scientific development of inverse vaccines from the immunological basics to preclinical models and initial clinical applications. It shows why diseases such as celiac disease, multiple sclerosis, and food allergies serve as test fields, what role multi-omics analyses, regulatory T cells, and organ-specific tolerance-especially in the liver-play, and why gene therapies without tolerance-based strategies reach their limits in the long term. Particular attention is paid to the regulatory, methodological, and conceptual challenges of this novel mode of action. Inverse vaccines do not fit into existing categories-and that is precisely where their potential lies. They force researchers, clinicians, and regulatory authorities to think of immune response not as a short-term effect, but as a changeable system state. Bremen University Press has published over 5, 500 specialist books since 2005. January 2026