Advances In Vaccinology Research Articles

Ending the global HIV/AIDS pandemic: the critical role of an HIV vaccine.

While the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS pandemic continues, the incidence of HIV infections has fallen because of the deployment of antiretroviral drugs and multiple prevention modalities. To achieve a durable end to the pandemic, a vaccine remains essential. Recent advances in vaccinology offer new promise for an effective HIV vaccine.

Continuing challenges in influenza.

Influenza is an acute respiratory disease in mammals and domestic poultry that emerges from zoonotic reservoirs in aquatic birds and bats. Although influenza viruses are among the most intensively studied pathogens, existing control options require further improvement. Influenza vaccines must be regularly updated because of continuous antigenic drift and sporadic antigenic shifts in the viral surface glycoproteins. Currently, influenza therapeutics are limited to neuraminidase inhibitors; novel drugs and vaccine approaches are therefore urgently needed. Advances in vaccinology and structural analysis have revealed common antigenic epitopes on hemagglutinins across all influenza viruses and suggest that a universal influenza vaccine is possible. In addition, various immunomodulatory agents and signaling pathway inhibitors are undergoing preclinical development. Continuing challenges in influenza include the emergence of pandemic H1N1 influenza in 2009, human infections with avian H7N9 influenza in 2013, and sporadic human cases of highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza. Here, we review the challenges facing influenza scientists and veterinary and human public health officials; we also discuss the exciting possibility of achieving the ultimate goal of controlling influenza's ability to change its antigenicity.

Vaccine Development Against Leishmania donovani

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) caused by Leishmania donovani and Leishmania infantum/chagasi represents the second most challenging infectious disease worldwide, leading to nearly 500,000 new cases and 60,000 deaths annually. Zoonotic VL caused by L. infantum is a re-emergent canid zoonoses which represents a complex epidemiological cycle in the New world where domestic dogs serve as a reservoir host responsible for potentially fatal human infection and where dog culling is the only measure for reservoir control. Life-long immunity to VL has motivated development of prophylactic vaccines against the disease but very few have progressed beyond the experimental stage. No licensed vaccine is available till date against any form of leishmaniasis. High toxicity and increasing resistance to the current chemotherapeutic regimens have further complicated the situation in VL endemic regions of the world. Advances in vaccinology, including recombinant proteins, novel antigen-delivery systems/adjuvants, heterologous prime-boost regimens and strategies for intracellular antigen presentation, have contributed to recent advances in vaccine development against VL. Attempts to develop an effective vaccine for use in domestic dogs in areas of canine VL should be pursued for preventing human infection. Studies in animal models and human patients have revealed the pathogenic mechanisms of disease progression and features of protective immunity. This review will summarize the accumulated knowledge of pathogenesis, immune response, and prerequisites for protective immunity against human VL. Authors will discuss promising vaccine candidates, their developmental status and future prospects in a quest for rational vaccine development against the disease. In addition, several challenges such as safety issues, renewed and coordinated commitment to basic research, preclinical studies and trial design will be addressed to overcome the problems faced in developing prophylactic strategies for protection against this lethal infection.

Hot Topics in Vaccines

This article summarizes several presentations which discussed recent publications that covered important advances in vaccinology.

Advancement in Vaccinology: New Era in Formulation Strategies

The development of vaccines to prevent infectious diseases has been one of the most important contributions of pharmaceutical sciences. Stemming from the vaccine research and development, not only a large number of diseasespecific vaccines have been developed, but also enormous efforts have been made to improve the effectiveness of vaccines in order to provide optimal immunization. Understanding the science at a molecular level and related fields provided an opportunity for the development of new vaccines that are based on rational drug design. Introduction of nanotechnology and the development of nanocarrier-based vaccines have started to receive a lot of attention in order to provide effective immunization through better targeting and by triggering antibody responses at the cellular level. Recent advances in understanding of the pathogenesis of infectious diseases have opened up doors for newer techniques. The genomic approach for antigen identification followed by its chemical synthesis has started the trend in genetic immunization. It is likely that vaccinology will greatly benefit from the emerging genomics technologies such as bioinformatics, proteomics, DNA microarray, signature tagged mutagenesis and in-vivo expression technology. This review article is intended to highlight usefulness of computational techniques in vaccine design, their formulation criteria and describe the past, current and future trends in vaccine development to formulate and deliver these vaccines appropriately to maximize the potential of modern advances in pathogenesis and vaccinology.

A 2020 vision for vaccines against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), malaria and tuberculosis collectively cause more than five million deaths per year, but have nonetheless eluded conventional vaccine development; for this reason they represent one of the major global public health challenges as we enter the second decade of the twenty-first century. Recent trials have provided evidence that it is possible to develop vaccines that can prevent infection by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and malaria. Furthermore, advances in vaccinology, including novel adjuvants, prime-boost regimes and strategies for intracellular antigen presentation, have led to progress in developing a vaccine against tuberculosis. Here we discuss these advances and suggest that new tools such as systems biology and structure-based antigen design will lead to a deeper understanding of mechanisms of protection which, in turn, will lead to rational vaccine development. We also argue that new and innovative approaches to clinical trials will accelerate the availability of these vaccines.

Book Review: New Generation Vaccines (4th Edition)

During the last decade, several successes have been achieved in the field of vaccinology that maintain its paramount position as the leading hope for the treatment of most acute and chronic diseases worldwide. However, challenges remain at both the logistic and the scientific level. The fourth edition of New Generation Vaccines updates the reader concerning recent scientific and clinical advances in vaccinology, clearly framing the discussion in the context of future challenges and the corresponding strategies regarding how to pursue the solutions.

Treatment strategies for central nervous system infections

Central nervous system (CNS) infections continue to be an important cause of mortality and morbidity. Current strategies for prevention and therapy of CNS infection are compromised by incomplete understanding of the microbial–host interactions that contribute to its pathogenesis and emergence of antimicrobial-resistant microorganisms. Our development of successful strategies in prevention and treatment of bacterial meningitis requires multifactorial concepts and approaches, which include advances in vaccinology, epidemiology of meningitis, emergence of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens, knowledge of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of antimicrobial agents, as well as the pathogenesis of meningitis. Prevention of bacterial meningitis targeting microbes has been effective, such as vaccination. The introduction of the protein conjugate vaccines against Haemophilus influenzae type b, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Neisseria meningitidis has changed the epidemiology of bacterial meningitis. Antimicrobial chemoprophylaxis is efficacious in prevention against H. influenzae type b and N. meningitidis meningitis. Suspected bacterial meningitis is a medical emergency and requires empiric antimicrobial therapy without delay, but recognition of pathogens with increasing resistance to antimicrobial agents is an important factor in selection of empiric antimicrobial regimen. A more complete understanding of the microbial–host interactions that are involved in the pathogenesis of CNS infections and associated neurologic sequelae is likely to help in developing new strategies for prevention and therapy of CNS infection.

Infectious diseases

This update focuses on new problems and advances in infectious diseases over the last two years. Several important emerging infections, the problem of drug resistance and increasing virulence in common pathogens, and the continuing challenge of tuberculosis, as both a global and local problem, will be discussed. Advances include new diagnostic strategies for tuberculosis, novel antimicrobial agents, and practical advances in vaccinology. This update focuses on new problems and advances in infectious diseases over the last two years. Several important emerging infections, the problem of drug resistance and increasing virulence in common pathogens, and the continuing challenge of tuberculosis, as both a global and local problem, will be discussed. Advances include new diagnostic strategies for tuberculosis, novel antimicrobial agents, and practical advances in vaccinology.

Novel approaches in the development of immunopotentiating reconstituted influenza virosomes as efficient antigen carrier systems

One of the most recent major advances in vaccinology, and currently the only licensed alternative to the traditional alum-based adjuvants, are immunopotentiating reconstituted influenza virosomes. The flexibility of this novel antigen delivery system enables the safe and effective delivery of modern vaccine developments, such as viral glycoproteins, bacterial toxoids, inactivated virus, recombinant proteins, synthetic peptides and DNA-plasmids or polynucleotides. These novel vaccine antigens are being incorporated into immunopotentiating reconstituted influenza virosomes in an attempt to develop a variety of new viral, bacterial and parasitic vaccines. In addition, immunopotentiating reconstituted influenza virosomes are showing future potential in the targeting of specific cells, such as tumor cells, and novel routes of vaccine administration.

Recent advances in vaccinology.

Major advances in vaccinology in the past year include the experimental use of vaccination for diseases such as Alzheimer's and stroke, a demonstration of the power of genomic approaches for target antigen identification, hopeful results in a clinical trial for a therapeutic cancer vaccine, and the successful mass immunisation of children with meningococcal conjugate vaccine in the UK.

Vaccination and World Health

This important book includes 11 scientific papers and six workshop reports, emanating from the Fourth Annual Public Health Forum held at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in April, 1994. The strengths of the tome are the up-to-date reports of impressive public health achievements worldwide and recent scientific advances in vaccinology. The plenary presentations are coupled to discussants' views; an effective technique. The workshop summaries mainly discuss operational issues. Of the many outstanding chapters, a few merit special comment.Ralph Henderson, World Health Organization (WHO) and Ciro DeQuadros, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) (Samuel Ofosu-Amaah, discussant) discuss the reasons for the well-known successes of smallpox eradication, poliomyelitis eradication in the western hemisphere, and the blooming of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) over the past two decades.

Lactic acid bacteria as vaccine delivery vehicles.

Every year the U.S. National Institutes of Health publishes a report called the Jordan Report which describes progress in the study of infectious diseases and their control by means of vaccination. The most recent report, entitled 'Accelerated Development of Vaccines 1995' neatly summarises the background to recent advances in vaccinology, and emphasises the international perspective of these advances. Five years ago the 1990 World Summit for Children (endorsing the concepts proposed by the Children's Vaccine Initiative) agreed that every encouragement should be given by international authorities to developing new vaccines and to ensure that they pass into routine use, reaching every child on a sustainable basis. The scale of this task is large. 500 million health care contacts will be needed each year to immunise a projected global cohort of 125 million children by the year 2000. The new vaccines which are most urgently needed are those that will simplify vaccine distribution and vaccine administration. The new vaccines must reduce dependence on a cold chain, be suitable for oral administration, and be low in cost. Of course, they should also possess the optimal qualities of all good vaccines: be safe, effective and capable of eliciting active immunity in early infancy. The requirement for mucosal (oral) route administration of new vaccines is particularly challenging to those acquainted with immunology. Although many infectious agents gain access to the body, or damage their hosts by colonising mucosal surfaces, very few of these infections can be effectively prevented by using mucosal route immunisation. Indeed, only in the case of a very limited number of diseases is it known that mucosal route immunisation can elicit protective level immune responses. The classical examples are those which involve the use of polio virus, cholera and typhoid vaccines. Our general ignorance of how best to develop mucosally active vaccines has led to an enormous increase in research on the physiology and function of the mucosal (local) immune system, and the development of delivery systems for mucosal immunisation. This is the context in which studies have begun in a number of laboratories into the possibility of using recombinant food-grade lactic acid bacteria as antigenpresenting vehicles.

Pseudorabies virus eradication by area-wide vaccination is feasible.

This article reviews the rationale for using marker vaccines and companion diagnostic tests in the eradication of pseudorabies virus (PRV). Recent advances in vaccinology and epidemiology indicate that, despite the inability to induce complete immunity, vaccination is a useful tool in the battle against PRV. This review focuses on the effectiveness of vaccination under field conditions and on herd, management and regional factors that are associated with PRV introduction or transmission.