Fighting infectious diseases with vaccination

Question 1

what are the categories of vaccines

Answer 1

live attenuated
killed pathogen
inactivated toxoid
subunit/conjugate
RNA/DNA based

Question 2

what are some infections that we do not have effective vaccines for yet

Answer 2

malaria
schistosomiasis
intestinal worm infestation
TB
diarrheal disease
respiratory infections
HIV/AIDS

Question 3

mechanisms of protection by vaccines using antibodies

Answer 3

neutralization
opsonization
antibodies against adhesins block colonization and uptake
antibody blocking virus receptor and can also block fusion event

Question 4

what do we need to consider for a vaccine to be effective before administering it to the public

Answer 4

is it…
safe
protective
gives sustained protection
induce neutralizing antibodies
induce protective T cells
practical considerations
preceived as safe

Question 5

vaccines that produce antibodies won’t be able to access which pathogens

Answer 5

intracellular antigens - need a vaccine that induces protective T cells to access these

Question 6

how does virus attenuation work

Answer 6

• the pathogen virus is isolated from a patient and grown in cultured human cells
• the cultured virus is used to infect non-human cells
• virus acquires mutations that allow it to grow well in non-human cells
• the virus no longer grows well in human cells and can be used in a vaccine (because it is still perceived as an antigen

Question 7

how can live-attenuated vaccines be made safer using recombinant DNA technology (modern day approach)

Answer 7

• isolate pathogenic virus then the virulence gene
• the virulence part of the gene is removed or mutated
• resulting virus is immunogenic, but avirulent and can be used as a vaccine

Question 8

what does immunologic mean

Answer 8

mounts an immune response

Question 9

toxoid generation for vaccine development

Answer 9

• purified exotoxin is treated to become a toxoid
• toxoid alone cannot cause infection so it is injected into recipient leading to B cell activation
• plasma cell releases neutralizing antibodies

Question 10

conjugate vaccines take advantage of _____ to boost B-cell responses against polysaccharide antigens

Answer 10

linked recognition

Question 11

how does linked recognition work in conjugate vaccines

Answer 11

• B cell binds bacterial polysaccharide epitope liked to toxoid protein
• antigen is internalized and processed
• peptides from protein component are presented to the T cell
• activated B cell produces antibodies against polysaccharide antigen

Question 12

what components to B and T cells recognize in vaccines against polysaccharide antigens

Answer 12

• TCR recognizes peptide
• BCR recognizes the protein component linked to the polysaccharide

Question 13

how can protective immunity be induced by RNA based vaccines

Answer 13

• non-replicating mRNA is synthesized encoding the viral protein it is targeting
• mRNA injected into muscle
• viral protein synthesized within transfected muscle cells
• B and T cell activation to viral protein produces neutralizing antibodies

Question 14

Adjuvants enhances immunogenicity of vaccines by…

Answer 14

enhancing innate immunity (TLRs, etc.)