Vaccination Flashcards
What is a vaccine?
A substance that stimulates the immune system, without causing serious harm or side effects
What is the aim of immunisation?
To provoke immunological memory and protect individuals against a particular diseases if encountered
What are some characteristics of the ideal vaccine?
Safe
Easy to administer
Cheap
Single-dose, needle-free
Stable/ Can be stored for longer periods of time
Active against all variants
Life-Long protection
What are the only types of viruses that can be completely eradicated?
human viruses (viruses that are only spread between humans)
What three things can vaccines work to do?
- Prevent entry - vaccine stimulates production of antibodies which bind to virus and stop it harming cells
- Macrophage: engulfs pathogen - Boosting immune response - the antigens in the vaccine stimulate CD4 Helper T cells
B cell: Makes Ig
CD4 t cells: helps - Killing Infected cells - CD8 killer cells detect the foreign antigens
What are the characteristics of immune memory?
The memory cells can multiply much faster and produce a stronger immune response by generating antibodies which have a higher affinity for antigens
What is R0?
The basic reproduction number - the number of cases one case generates on average over the course of their infectious period
What happens if R0 <1?
The infection will die out eventually
What happens if R0>1?
Then the infection will be able to spread in the population
What is the effective number (Rt) and why is it more useful?
It is similar to R0 but does not assume that everyone is susceptible, and therefore takes into account that people may be immune - helpful as then the true severity can be determined
What is herd immunity?
Those people who are immunised against the virus can help protect those who are not as the virus will be less transmissible amongst those protected
What needs to happen in terms of vaccines if R0 is high?
more people need to be immunised for herd immunity to work
What are the four components of a vaccine?
Active ingredient/ antigen
adjuvant (normally alum)
preservatives stabilising factors eg buffers
water (main ingredient)
What are active ingredients?
A very small amount of a harmless form of the bacteria or virus you are immunising against
What is an adjuvant?
Substances used in combination with the specific antigen to elicit a more robust immune response than if the antigen was just used alone
- has no significant risk to health as it’s very small quantities used
How do adjuvants work?
They engage with pattern recognition proteins which induce danger signals that activate DC’s to present antigen to T cells
Adjuvant stimulates the DC
DC uptakes antigen and moves to Lymph node
Upregulates stimulatory signalling and cytokines
What adjuvant is normally found in vaccines?
Alum
What are 2 new platforms for adjuvants?
AS03 – GSK adjuvant in a number of different vaccines e.g.
Shingrix (chicken pox) Mosquirix (malaria)
New experimental TB New experimental COVID
MF59 – In Seqirus influenza vaccine
Mechanism of adjuvant action?
- Adjuvant stimulates DC
- DC take up antigen and moves to secondary lymphoid tissue
- Upregulation of co-stimulatory signalling and cytokines