Lab Exam (Vaccines)

Question 1

What are inactivated vaccines composed of?

Answer 1

composed of chemically inactivated, irradiated, or heat-killed pathogen

Question 2

How are pathogens killed or inactivated?

Answer 2

• heat treatment
• irradiation
• formalin treatment

Question 3

What is the mechanism of heat treatment?

Answer 3

high temperatures can kill bacteria

Question 4

What is the mechanism of irradiation?

Answer 4

powerful irradiation can permanently damage the pathogen’s DNA

Question 5

What is the mechanism of formalin treatment?

Answer 5

formalin is formaldehyde solution that crosslinks or covalently modifies proteins and DNA

Question 6

What is the best method for killing or inactivating pathogens?

Answer 6

irradiation, produces a vaccine that best mimics the actual pathogen as this process does less damage to the associated antigens, allowing the inactivated virus or bacterium to closely mirror the live pathogen

Question 7

How many doses do you need for an effective inactivated vaccine?

Answer 7

two doses

Question 8

What are live attenuated vaccines composed of?

Answer 8

composed of a pathogen that has not been inactivated but is incapable of normal survival or pathogenesis in the host

Question 9

What are the infection capabilities of the attenuated pathogen?

Answer 9

pathogen has lost its ability to cause disease but does not kill the pathogen

Question 10

What are the benefits to a live attenuated vaccine?

Answer 10

• allows vaccine to more closely mimic an infection without causing negative reactions
• activates the cellular arm of the adaptive immune response
• induce production of secretory IgA and IgG

Question 11

What are the negatives to a live attenuated vaccine?

Answer 11

induces severe complications in immunocompromised individuals

Question 12

What are toxoid vaccines composed of?

Answer 12

vaccines containing inactivated exotoxins to simulate an adaptive immune response that involves production of neutralizing antibodies that block normal exotoxin activity

Question 13

What are exotoxins?

Answer 13

causative agents of disease, activation of an immune response capable of neutralizing these toxins

Question 14

How are exotoxins inactivated?

Answer 14

by formalin treatment or heat

Question 15

What is the function of exotoxins?

Answer 15

activates B cells capable of producing toxin-neutralizing immunoglobulins

Question 16

What are subunit vaccines composed of?

Answer 16

vaccines composed of a cell-surface antigen/ adhesion molecules of a pathogen; designed to stimulate the production of neutralizing immunoglobulins that block pathogen interaction with target cells

Question 17

What is the function if neutralizing immunoglobulins?

Answer 17

recognize adhesion molecules that can block infection by the intracellular pathogen

Question 18

What is the function of adhesion molecules?

Answer 18

activates B cells that can generate neutralizing antibodies to the specific cell adhesion molecules

Question 19

What are conjugate vaccines composed of?

Answer 19

vaccines composed of a weak antigen (incapable of mounting a robust adaptive immune response) coupled with a stronger antigen that can activate a protective primary immune response

Question 20

What is the mechanism of the coupled antigens?

Answer 20

drive the activation of T cells that respond to the toxoid and B cells that respond to the polysaccharide

Question 21

How many doses do you need for an effective conjugate vaccine?

Answer 21

requires boosters to promote full protection against the pathogen

Question 22

What are the components of conjugate vaccines?

Answer 22

polysaccharide coat (weak antigen) and toxoid (strong antigen)

Question 23

What are recombinant vector vaccines composed of?

Answer 23

vaccines that take advantage of the ability to isolate a gene capable of encoding an antigen from a pathogen and placing the gene into a plasmid or harmless or attenuated virus

Question 24

What is similar to a recombinant vector vaccine?

Answer 24

acts in a similar manner to a live attenuated vaccine, but also expresses the antigen of interest with the intent of inducing a protective immune response against the antigen

Question 25

Where is the gene incorporated in a recombinant vector?

Answer 25

incorporated into a plasmid, the plasmid is incorporated into a harmless bacteria

Question 26

What are DNA vaccines composed of?

Answer 26

vaccines containing DNA

Question 27

What is the mechanism for DNA vaccines?

Answer 27

DNA is placed directly into the host in hopes of having host cells pick up the DNA and incorporate it into their genomic DNA

Question 28

What are mRNA vaccines composed of?

Answer 28

vaccines containing mRNA

Question 29

What is the mechanism of mRNA vaccines?

Answer 29

1. an mRNA molecule that encodes an antigen target is delivered into a target cell
2. the target cell takes up the mRNA to translate the antigen and induce an adaptive immune response

Question 30

Why are mRNA vaccines unreliable?

Answer 30

injected mRNA may induce an innate immune response if it is recognized via PRRs

Question 31

How are mRNA vaccines optimized?

Answer 31

mRNA can be purified and its nucleotides modified to limit recognition as PAMPs

Question 32

How many doses do you need for an effective mRNA vaccine?

Answer 32

two doses