Vaccination Flashcards
What exactly is vaccination?
The deliberate delivery of pathogen antigen in order to elicit a primary response yet not have a high pathological outcome (little to no sickness)
What was the first widespread vaccine?
The smallpox vaccine, leading to global eradication in 1979
How do live attenuated viruses work?
This type of vaccine is grown in cells from another species (eg monkey), where the virus acquires mutations to infect monkeys well and humans less effectively, becoming attenuated in humans
What are the characteristics of killed/inactivated pathogens?
These pathogens are unable to replicate or cause infection, and are in general weaker than attenuated vaccines
What are subunit vaccines?
These are a type of vaccine that do not contain whole cells, but only the antigen that best stimulates the immune system (Hepatitis B)
What is a adjuvant?
Something that stimulates the innate immune system, found in subunit vaccines, dendritic cell activation
How do conjugate vaccines work?
A bacterial capsular polysaccharides are conjugated to a protein in order to produce a T-cell response in infants, which is necessary in infants due to their weak T-cell independent response
How do the moderna and pfizer mRNA vaccines work?
These deliver the mRNA encoding for the COVID spike protein, resulting in an immune response to that spike protein, similar to a subunit vaccine
How does the J&J vector vaccine work?
Uses a non-pathogenic virus to infect cells and deliver DNA to infected cells. This DNA encodes for the spike protein and the body develops an immune response
What is herd immunity?
A large majority of protected (vaccinated) individuals are able to protect a small minority of non-protected individuals (low chance of encountering the pathogen)
