27. Viral Vaccines Flashcards
who do infectious diseases mostly effect?
the poor and those living in poverty
what are the current diseases growing in burden?
CVD and other diseases associated with affluent and sedentary lifestyles
why are vaccines not the magic bullet they could be?
not everybody can access the vaccines they need
people in poverty and lower income countries have less access to healthcare and healthcare education
what is the only thing that had a bigger impact on disease burden then vaccines?
Access to clean drinking water
why have most infectious diseases decreased over the last 100 years?
because of vaccines
why does measles still have a high disease burden?
- it is not really perceived as dangerous
- Chances of dying even when not vaccinated are still very low
- low word of mouth worry encouraging vaccine uptake
- spreads easily so masses of cases
- 100,000s still die every year
what are vaccine preventable deaths?
people dying from diseases that could be prevented but they are not getting the vaccines they need to prevent the deaths
how much have measles death decreases in since 1999?
1 million deaths in 1999
100,000 deaths in ~2020
why do we not have vaccines for massive viral diseases?
- the virus changes too much that the vaccine won’t be effective for very long
- we don’t know what the next big viral threat will be so we don’t know where to invest the money and which vaccines to develop
what are some viruses that don’t have vaccines?
HIV
Dengue
Herpes viruses
Hepatitis C
SARS
what are other factors that reduce the infectious disease burden?
- access to clean drinking water
- adequate nutrition
- proper sewage disposal (links to clean water)
- insect/rodent control
- medical services (can be as simple as having 1 nurse)
- uncontaminated blood supplies
what is a major determinant of health and public health?
availability of medical professionals
this also helps with effective vaccine role out
why is there no HIV vaccine?
no one’s immune system has figured out how to defeat HIV so we don’t know what kind of immune response to mimic for it to be an effective vaccine
diversity and plasticity of the virus
what are the unknowns that means we cannot make vaccines?
- what immune response is protective
- what immune response needs to be induced by vaccines
- what induces long term protection
- differences in natural and induced immune responses
what will happen when you give 100 people the same vaccine?
they will all have different immune responses to the vaccines and someone’s will figure out a way to defeat the virus
what is the problem with early childhood immunisations?
- maternal IgG antibodies until 2 months which suppress the child’s natural immune response and clear the vaccine without leaving protection
- new born immune response is very different to adults and we don’t really understand how it works due to problems with studying sick babies
what is the problem with vaccination and mucosal immunity?
IgA is secreted across the epithelial barrier and is harder to induce through a vaccine
but is important for a lot of infections
what is the problem with vaccination and animal models?
Animal models are used to evaluate toxicity and efficacy of experimental vaccines on the disease and infection in question
however the models are rarely accurate to the equivalent human infection and disease
how do viruses have lots of antigenic variation?
- high error rates
- lack of proof reading
- the ability of the viral particle to tolerate changes in the structure
what is an example of a virus with low plasticity?
measles
the particle cannot tolerate changes so vaccine protection can last for life
what is an example of a virus with high plasticity?
HIV
so plastic the immunity system cannot effectively target it
what needs to be considered in viral vaccine design relating to the virus?
- how is the disease caused?
- where does the virus gain entry?
- what is the structure of the virus?
- does the virus display lots of antigenic variation?
- does the virus have a persistent or latent form?
- is there cell-to-cell transmission?
what needs to be considered in viral vaccine design relating to the host’s immune response?
- do we need to induce mucosal or systemic immunity or both?
- what immune response is protective from disease?
- do we want neutralising antibodies?
- do we want a Th1 or Th2 response?
- is the immune response subverted in some way?
- does the immune response enhance infection?
- will maternal antibodies reduce efficacy?
- do we need sterilising immunity?
- is there a suitable animal model?
what is sterilising immunity?
the virus is completely cleared with no viral particles remaining