Abstract
Vaccines were initially developed on an empirical basis, relying mostly on attenuation or inactivation of pathogens. Advances in immunology, molecular biology, biochemistry, genomics, and proteomics have added new perspectives to the vaccinology field. The use of recombinant proteins allows the targeting of immune responses focused against few protective antigens. There are a variety of expression systems with different advantages, allowing the production of large quantities of proteins depending on the required characteristics. Live recombinant bacteria or viral vectors effectively stimulate the immune system as in natural infections and have intrinsic adjuvant properties. DNA vaccines, which consist of non-replicating plasmids, can induce strong long-term cellular immune responses. Prime-boost strategies combine different antigen delivery systems to broaden the immune response. In general, all of these strategies have shown advantages and disadvantages, and their use will depend on the knowledge of the mechanisms of infection of the target pathogen and of the immune response required for protection. In this review, we discuss some of the major breakthroughs that have been achieved using recombinant vaccine technologies, as well as new approaches and strategies for vaccine development, including potential shortcomings and risks.
Highlights
Most current vaccines owe their success to their ability to target pathogens that have low antigenic variability and for which protection depends on antibody-mediated immunity
We review some of these strategies being currently used and discuss their potential for the generation of new human vaccines, as well as the challenges that remain to be solved for their development and use [5]
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) presents a marked tropism for human liver cells, partially due to a specific receptor that is expressed on the surface of infected cells
Summary
Most current vaccines owe their success to their ability to target pathogens that have low antigenic variability and for which protection depends on antibody-mediated immunity. This is the case for polio, tetanus, diphtheria, measles, and hepatitis B, among others (Table 1) [1,2,3]. Recombinant protein vaccines permit the avoidance of several potential concerns raised by vaccines based on purified macromolecules, such as the risk of co-purification of undesired contaminants or reversal of the toxoids to their toxigenic forms, if considering diphtheria or tetanus toxoid vaccines, for example Another fundamental issue overcome by this technology is the complexity involved in obtaining sufficient quantities of purified antigenic components. We review some of these strategies being currently used and discuss their potential for the generation of new human vaccines, as well as the challenges that remain to be solved for their development and use [5]
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