Rational Design of Conjugate Vaccines

Vaccines: From Empirical Development to Rational Design

Infectious diseases are responsible for an overwhelming number of deaths worldwide and their clinical management is often hampered by the emergence of multi-drug-resistant strains. Therefore, prevention through vaccination currently represents the best course of action to combat them. However, immune escape and evasion by pathogens often render vaccine development difficult. Furthermore, most c...

Conjugate and Polysaccharide Vaccines Conjugate and Polysaccharide Vaccines, Plenary Review Meningococcal polysaccharide-protein conjugate vaccines

Glycoprotein conjugate vaccines.

The polysaccharide capsule which surrounds bacterial species like Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis, Salmonella typhi, is a potent virulence factor. It protects the bacterium from phagocytosis, but capsule specific antibodies plus complement binding to the capsule opsonise the organism for phagocytosis and elimination. Purified capsules elicit T-independen...

Rational design of vaccines against tuberculosis directed by basic immunology.

Tuberculosis represents a serious problem for public health worldwide, and effective vaccines are urgently required. This represents a significant challenge as the causative bacterial agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, has developed strategies to persist in infected hosts despite the presence of potent T-cell-mediated immune responses. New advances in basic immunology are giving us improved und...

Principles underlying rational design of live attenuated influenza vaccines

Despite recent innovative advances in molecular virology and the developments of vaccines, influenza virus remains a serious burden for human health. Vaccination has been considered a primary countermeasure for prevention of influenza infection. Live attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIVs) are particularly attracting attention as an effective strategy due to several advantages over inactivated va...