Vaccines typically contain attenuated, inactivated or dead organisms or purified products derived from them. There are several types of vaccines in use. These represent different strategies used to try to reduce the risk of illness while retaining the ability to induce a beneficial immune response.
Attenuated Some vaccines contain live,
attenuated microorganisms. Many of these are active
viruses that have been cultivated under conditions that disable their virulent properties, or that use closely related but less dangerous organisms to produce a broad immune response. Although most attenuated vaccines are viral, some are bacterial in nature. Examples include the viral diseases
yellow fever,
measles,
mumps, and
rubella, and the bacterial disease
typhoid. The live
Mycobacterium tuberculosis vaccine developed by Calmette and Guérin is not made of a
contagious strain but contains a virulently modified strain called "
BCG" used to elicit an immune response to the vaccine. The live attenuated vaccine containing strain
Yersinia pestis EV is used for
plague immunization. Attenuated vaccines have some advantages and disadvantages. Attenuated, or live, weakened, vaccines typically provoke more durable immunological responses. Attenuated vaccines also elicit a cellular and humoral response. However, they may not be safe for use in immunocompromised individuals, and on rare occasions mutate to a virulent form and cause disease.
Inactivated Some vaccines contain microorganisms that have been killed or inactivated by physical or chemical means. Examples include IPV (
polio vaccine),
hepatitis A vaccine,
rabies vaccine and most
influenza vaccines. vaccine development by
reverse genetics techniques
Toxoid Toxoid vaccines are made from inactivated toxic compounds that cause illness rather than the microorganism.
Subunit Rather than introducing an inactivated or attenuated microorganism to an immune system (which would constitute a "whole-agent" vaccine), a
subunit vaccine uses a fragment of it to create an immune response. One example is the subunit vaccine against
hepatitisB, which is composed of only the surface proteins of the virus (previously extracted from the
blood serum of chronically infected patients but now produced by
recombination of the viral genes into
yeast). Other examples include the
Gardasil virus-like particle human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, the
hemagglutinin and
neuraminidase subunits of the
influenza virus,
Conjugate Certain bacteria have a polysaccharide
outer coat that is poorly
immunogenic. By linking these outer coats to proteins (e.g., toxins), the
immune system can be led to recognize the
polysaccharide as if it were a protein antigen. This approach is used in the
Haemophilus influenzae type B vaccine.
Outer membrane vesicle Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are naturally immunogenic and can be manipulated to produce potent vaccines. The best known OMV vaccines are those developed for
serotype B meningococcal disease.
Heterotypic Heterologous vaccines also known as "Jennerian vaccines", are vaccines that are pathogens of other animals that either do not cause disease or cause mild disease in the organism being treated. The classic example is Jenner's use of cowpox to protect against smallpox. A current example is the use of
BCG vaccine made from
Mycobacterium bovis to protect against
tuberculosis.
Genetic vaccine Genetic vaccines are based on the principle of uptake of a nucleic acid into cells, whereupon a protein is produced according to the nucleic acid template. This protein is usually the immunodominant antigen of the pathogen or a surface protein that enables the formation of neutralizing antibodies. The subgroup of genetic vaccines encompass viral vector vaccines, RNA vaccines and DNA vaccines.
Viral vector Viral vector vaccines use a safe
virus to insert pathogen genes in the body to produce specific
antigens, such as surface
proteins, to stimulate an
immune response. Viruses being researched for use as viral vectors include adenovirus, vaccinia virus, and
VSV.
RNA An mRNA vaccine (or
RNA vaccine) is a novel type of vaccine which is composed of the nucleic acid RNA, packaged within a vector such as lipid
nanoparticles. Among the
COVID-19 vaccines are a number of RNA vaccines to combat the
COVID-19 pandemic and some have been approved or have received
emergency use authorization in some countries. For example, the
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and
Moderna mRNA vaccine are approved for use in adults and children in the US.
DNA A DNA vaccine uses a
DNA plasmid (pDNA)) that encodes for an antigenic protein originating from the pathogen upon which the vaccine will be targeted. pDNA is inexpensive, stable, and relatively safe, making it an excellent option for vaccine delivery. This approach offers a number of potential advantages over traditional approaches, including the stimulation of both B- and T-cell responses, improved vaccine stability, the absence of any infectious agent and the relative ease of large-scale manufacture.
Experimental Many innovative vaccines are also in development and use. • Dendritic cell vaccines combine
dendritic cells with antigens to present the antigens to the body's white blood cells, thus stimulating an immune reaction. These vaccines have shown some positive preliminary results for treating brain tumors and are also tested in melanoma. •
Recombinant vectorby combining the physiology of one microorganism and the
DNA of another, immunity can be created against diseases that have complex infection processes. An example is the
RVSV-ZEBOV vaccine licensed to Merck that is being used in 2018 to combat
ebola in Congo. •
T-cell receptor peptide vaccines are under development for several diseases using models of
Valley Fever,
stomatitis, and
atopic dermatitis. These peptides have been shown to modulate
cytokine production and improve cell-mediated immunity. • Targeting of identified bacterial proteins that are involved in complement inhibition would neutralize the key bacterial virulence mechanism. • The use of
plasmids has been validated in preclinical studies as a protective vaccine strategy for cancer and infectious diseases. However, in human studies, this approach has failed to provide clinically relevant benefit. The overall efficacy of plasmid DNA immunization depends on increasing the plasmid's
immunogenicity while also correcting for factors involved in the specific activation of immune effector cells. •
Bacterial vector – Similar in principle to
viral vector vaccines, but using bacteria instead. or protein nanoparticles. •
Inverse vaccines are vaccines that train the immune system to not respond to certain substances. While most vaccines are created using inactivated or attenuated compounds from microorganisms,
synthetic vaccines are composed mainly or wholly of synthetic peptides, carbohydrates, or antigens. ==Valence==