Kaloyan Georgiev

By Marieta Georgieva, Kaloyan Georgiev and Peter Dobromirov

Probiotics are “living microorganisms” which exert a prophylactic and therapeutic effect by improving the internal microbial balance. Probiotics play a role in defining and maintaining the delicate balance between necessary and excessive defence mechanisms including innate and adaptive immune responses. The beneficial effects of probiotics have been demonstrated in many diseases.

Part of the book: Immunopathology and Immunomodulation

By Kaloyan Georgiev and Marieta Georgieva

The road to individualized therapy goes through detecting specific targets (e.g., antigens), suitable for influence, and their selective targeting by using specially designed molecules (e.g., antibodies). A significant advance in this area is the development of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. This approach enables maximizing the therapeutic effect on one hand, and reducing systemic toxicity on the other hand. In recent years, significant progress was made in improving their pharmacological performance – pharmacokinetics (longer half-life) and pharmacodynamics properties (better efficacy because of stronger affinity to human receptor), and safety profile (less antigenic and immunogenic reactions). Interleukins are a diverse, multifunctional group of proteins that carry out communication between various immune cells and control their gene expression. They manage the intensity and magnitude of an inflammatory response, and control differentiation, proliferation, and secretion of antibodies. Therefore, interleukin network represents an interesting pharmacological target, modulation of which using either biological or small chemical agents could contribute to suppression of excessive activated immune system and successfully treat the diseases that they are involved in.

Part of the book: Immunopathology and Immunomodulation