Immune responses induced by intranasal imiquimod and implications for therapeutics in rhinovirus infections

✍ Scribed by Sanda Clejan; E. Mandrea; Ivona V. Pandrea; J. Dufour; S. Japa; R. S. Veazey

• Book ID: 118715398
• Publisher: Carol Davila University of Medicine Bucharest, Romania
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 229 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1582-1838
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1582-4934.2005.tb00370.x

✦ Synopsis

The common cold is a very "common" affliction. Millions of people are affected each year. The economic toll is enormous, both in direct cost of medication as well as indirect costs such as lost work and school days. Human rhinoviruses are the most frequent cause of the common cold [1], and the viral rhinitis usually has to run its course for 1-2 weeks. Symptomatic treatment is all that is now available. Imidazoquinolone compounds like imiquimod have been shown to be immunomodulators and are used as topical therapy for some viral infections [2][3][4][5]. We hypothesize that intranasal topical immunotherapy with an immunomodulator inducing IFN-α under very controlled conditions may limit the acquisition of the virus, and thus could be a practical and "patient-friendly" treatment for these viral infections. The imidazoquinolone compounds, of which imiquimod (formulated, as Aldara ™), is the best characterized to date, are immuno-modulators molecules which act by activating macrophages and other cells by binding to cell interface receptors like Toll receptor 7, and inducing secretion of inflammatory cytokines, pre-