Abstract
Modern advances in our understanding of immunologic processes, along with discoveries in disease pathophysiology, have led to the development of innovative therapeutic tools. In several fields of medicine, biologic response modifiers, selective immunoregulatory drugs, or simply biologics are now being used in the treatment of conditions for which either no other effective therapies exist or the existing therapies provide substandard therapeutic results. Biologic agents comprise a variety of medicinal products already in use, such as vaccines, human cells and tissues, recombinant therapeutic proteins, allergenic products, blood components, and human gene therapy products. The term biologics, however, is more commonly used to describe a class of medications produced by means of biological processes involving recombinant DNA technology. These are immunoregulators and bioengineered proteins, such as fusion proteins, chimeric or fully humanized monoclonal antibodies, or recombinant cytokines that directly interfere with the pathological effects of T cells.
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Mitropoulos, P., Norman, R.A. (2011). Biologics. In: Norman, R. (eds) Preventive Dermatology. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-021-2_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-021-2_10
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