Chapter 19 - New approaches to vaccines for infectious diseases

Abstract

Vaccines have been one of the most important medical inventions of modern times. Vaccination against infectious diseases has protected humans against the onslaught of deadly microorganisms and helped sustain humanity. Early antigens consisted of live or inactivated pathogens. However, to keep up with advanced pathogens, several novel vaccines, such as subunit and nucleic acid-based vaccines, have been developed. This chapter discusses the need for novel antigens and the resulting advances made with novel vaccine antigens. The discovery of novel vaccine antigens resulted in the advent of novel delivery systems to carry the novel antigens. This chapter describes the different carrier systems, such as novel formulations used to deliver the vaccine antigens. The success of vaccines also depends on vaccine compliance by patients. Even today, several people avoid vaccination due to the fear of needles. Thus, in addition to novel antigens and carrier systems, a great deal of research has gone into novel routes of administration. In addition to being painless, novel routes of vaccine administration may also contribute to vaccine efficacy. This chapter introduces the different novel routes of vaccine administration and deliberates the different formulations used to deliver the vaccine via the novel routes. Thus, this book describes recent advances in the field of novel vaccines.