Trends
This section needs to be updated.June 2018) ( |
Vaccine development has several trends:
- Until recently,when? most vaccines were aimed at infants and children, but adolescents and adults are increasingly being targeted.
- Combinations of vaccines are becoming more common; vaccines containing five or more components are used in many parts of the world.
- New methods of administering vaccines are being developed,when? such as skin patches, aerosols via inhalation devices, and eating genetically engineered plants.
- Vaccines are being designed to stimulate innate immune responses, as well as adaptive.
- Attempts are being made to develop vaccines to help cure chronic infections, as opposed to preventing disease.
- Vaccines are being developed to defend against bioterrorist attacks such as anthrax, plague, and smallpox.
- Appreciation for sex and pregnancy differences in vaccine responses "might change the strategies used by public health officials".
- Scientists are now trying to develop synthetic vaccines by reconstructing the outside structure of a virus, this will help prevent vaccine resistance.
Principles that govern the immune response can now be used in tailor-made vaccines against many noninfectious human diseases, such as cancers and autoimmune disorders. For example, the experimental vaccine CYT006-AngQb has been investigated as a possible treatment for high blood pressure. Factors that affect the trends of vaccine development include progress in translatory medicine, demographics, regulatory science, political, cultural, and social responses.
Plants as bioreactors for vaccine production
Transgenic plants have been identified as promising expression systems for vaccine production. Complex plants such as tobacco, potato, tomato, and banana can have genes inserted that cause them to produce vaccines usable for humans. Bananas have been developed that produce a human vaccine against hepatitis B. Another example is the expression of a fusion protein in alfalfa transgenic plants for the selective directioning to antigen presenting cells, therefore increasing vaccine potency against Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus (BVDV).
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