www.reumato logiac l in ica.org Editorial Understanding the Immunogenicity Concept

Immunogenicity is just one of the many benefits of our immune system and is defined as the ability of different substances to trigger an adaptive cellular and humoral cell immune response that is long-term and leads to immunological memory. In rheumatology and other medical specialties such as derma-tology, gastroenterology, neurology and immunology, biological proteins derived from biotechnology are increasingly used as ther-apeutic agents. These proteins, like many other exogenous agents can induce humoral and cellular immune responses. However, in recent years we have noticed how these concepts have been inter-preted haphazardly, and sometimes in the wrong way from the point of view of their clinical significance. The immune response or immunogenicity which can be trig-gered by a therapeutic protein has been proposed as a cause of potential clinical events, including hypersensitivity reactions