Anti ganglioside monoclonal antibodies and their use in the specific active immunotherapy of malignant tumours

摘要

The present invention relates to immunotherapy strategies for the treatment of malignancies. The present immunotherapy strategies have gangliosides as a target. Gangliosides are glycosphingolipids which are present on normal cells and on malignant cells. On malignant cells they are more abundant and expressed in a different organization and conformation. The present invention provides antibodies which recognize these gangliosides, which antibodies are specific, have recurrent idiotypes and have value as immunoregulators. The invention further provides anti-idiotypic antibodies against anti-ganglioside antibodies. These are useful in vaccination strategies. IMAGE