Vaccines Flashcards
What is a vaccine?
Something that stimulates the immune system, without causing serious harm or side effects
How can vaccines be administered?
- Injection
- Nasal spray
What are the 7 considerations made when making a vaccine?
- Safety
- Easy to administer
- Cheap
- Stable
- Active against all variants
- Provides life-long protection
How do vaccines work?
Trains immune system to recognise and remember an infection without actually infecting the patient
Are vaccines effective?
Yes - very —> eradicated smallpox
What are the ways vaccines can stimulate a better secondary immune response?
- Stimulate prevention of entry
- Antibodies and macrophages - Stimulate kill of infected cells
- CD8 T cells - Boost overall immune response
- B cells and CD4 T cells
What is the overall aim of vaccines?
Reduce community spread of an infection
What is R0?
Basic reproductive number
- Number of cases one case generates on average
What do vaccines aim to do to R0?
R0<1
—-> Over time, number of cases decrease
What is herd immunity?
Indirect community immunity when most are immune
How do vaccines achieve herd immunity?
Decrease chance infected person interacting with susceptible (unvaccinated) host and transmitting infection
What are the 5 components of a vaccine serum?
- Water
- Active ingredient
- Adjuvants
- Residual traces
- Preservatives and stabilisers
What is the function of water in vaccines?
Main ingredient containing all other components
What is the function of the active ingredient in vaccines?
Specific pathogen that will stimulate primary immune response
What is the function of adjuvants in vaccines?
Boost immune system
What is the function of preservatives and stabilisers in vaccines?
Maintain vaccine quality and safety (prevent contamination)
Why do you get residual traces in a vaccine?
Part of vaccine manufacturing process
What are the 4 types of vaccines?
- Inactivated toxoid
- Conjugate
- Dead pathogen
- Live attenuated
What are inactivated toxoid vaccines?
Vaccines containing chemically inactivated form of pathogen toxin
What is an example of an inactivated toxoid vaccine?
Tetanus toxoid
- Stimulates antibody production —> blocks toxin binding nerves
What are the pros and cons of inactivated toxoid vaccines?
Pros:
- Cheaper
- Safe
- Been used for decades —> lots of research
Cons:
- Only works for pathogens encoding toxins
- Need good understanding of infection biology
What are recombinant protein vaccines?
vaccine containing recombinant protein from pathogen (eg. surface antigen)
What is an example of a recombinant protein vaccine and how does it work?
HbSAg (HeP B surface antigen)
- Stimulates neutralising antibody production
What are the pros and cons of recombinant protein vaccines?
Pros:
- Pure
- Safe
Cons:
- Expensive
- Not very immunogenic (ability to stimulate immune response)
- Doesn’t work against capsulated bacteria