Table 1.

Comparison of those two peptide-based therapeutic vaccination strategies for rheumatic diseases.

Comparison items	Peptide-based active vaccination against pathogenic cytokines	Peptide-based tolerogenic vaccination
Sources of peptides	Pathogenic cytokines	Self-antigens, TCR repertoire
Therapeutic targets	Pathogenic cytokines	Autoimmune attacks against host cells or tissues caused by autoreactive lymphocytes
Main effects	Induce the production of neutralizing antibodies against pathogenic molecules	Induce immune tolerance to self-antigens by inhibiting autoreactive lymphocytes while promoting Tregs
Adjuvant	Need adjuvant	Not necessary
Relevant immune cells	Mainly B cells	Autoreactive T cells, Tregs, tolDCs, etc.
Evidence from clinical trials	Limited	Limited
Diseases	RA, SLE, and SjS	RA, SLE, and SjS

Tregs: regulatory T cells; tolDCs: tolerogenic dendritic cells; RA: rheumatoid arthritis; SLE: systemic lupus erythematosus; SjS: Sjögren's syndrome; VLP: virus-like particle; TCR: T cell receptor.