Sublingual vaccines based on wild-type recombinant allergens.

Sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) represents a non invasive alternative to subcutaneous immunotherapy in order to treat type I allergies. Vaccines based on recombinant allergens expressed in a native (i.e. wild-type) configuration, formulated with ad hoc adjuvants designed to target Langerhans cells in the sublingual mucosa should allow to induce allergen-specific regulatory T cells. In this context, we have developed animal and human preclinical models to test the capacity of candidate vaccines to modulate selectively allergen-specific T helper lymphocyte polarization following sublingual vaccination.