Vaccines and Immunology

Vaccine Development can be defined as an activity that focuses on a variety of technological initiatives and applied research, which enhance and promote improved systems and practices for vaccine safety. In recent years, the unprecedented Ebola disease outbreak galvanized research and industry response and as we continue to search for solutions, we must review the lessons learned to overcome the current challenges. As it is a long and complex process often lasting 10-15 years, it requires the combination of public and private involvement. The current system for developing, testing, and regulating vaccines developed during the 20th century as the groups involved has standardized their procedures and regulations.

Vaccine Adjuvants are added to vaccines which promotes immune system to develop antibodies to provide long lasting immunity and also to regulate the use of antigen. Alum, AS04 (which is a mixture of alum & monophosphoryl lipid A), MF59, AS04 are some of the adjuvants used to enhance the immune response.

Thermal stabilization has the ability in transforming the immunization process. Apart from these sugar preserves vaccine for a long and needed time of use. Role of liposomes & Nano particles in delivering the vaccines is crucial.

Advancements in Plant based Immunization include the coordination of the coveted qualities encoding the antigen protein for particular illness into the genome of plant tissues by different strategies. Agrobacterium-interceded quality exchange and change by means that of hereditarily altered plant infection are the traditional techniques that are utilized to form viable antibodies. Vaccination has long been an efficient way to decrease illness burden in pets and livestock, and is one amongst the key tool in maintaining animal health and welfare.

Due to outbreak of odd diseases vaccines came into rescue to protect from invasion of deadly RNA into the host cell. Apart from efficacy, safety too matters as some of the vaccines causing adverse effects because of the unwanted reactions with the human body. Weighing the benefits and risk of vaccines evaluation, analysis, severity, mortality & morbidity of side effects must be taken into consideration. The risks must be known from vaccinating and non-vaccinating and calculate the benefits rather than risks associated with vaccines. 

The causative agents of these diseases are characterized as they pose some unusual biological and physical-chemical properties. Vaccines are specially designed to attack the particular root cause and halt the replication of the viruses. Numerous factors make sense that the existing diseases can be outweighed by vaccines. An early intra vitam-Diagnose and in vitro detection can avoid a further spread of this new category of diseases.

A Vaccine which either treats the existing cancer or prevents development of a cancer is known as Cancer Vaccine. Vaccines used to treat the Existing cancer are called Therapeutic cancer vaccines. Most of the vaccines are "autologous", and are being prepared from samples taken from the patient, and are specific to that patient.

Treatment that helps your immune system fight cancer (or) Treatment of disease by activating or suppressing the immune system is known as Immunotherapy.

• Activation Immunotherapy: elicit or amplify an immune response.
• Suppression Immunotherapy: reduce or suppress an Immune response.

Protective immunity through DNA vaccines is provided with the progress in Biotechnology. A novel approach to the methodology of vaccination is known as Nano-Vaccine and Nano-materials are delivered in the form of microspheres, nano-beads or micro-nanoprojections. Some approaches which are effective, painless and safe needle-free routes such as the intranasal or the oral route, or patches of micro-projections to the skin are in the experimental stage at present but this will have a great future ahead in nano-vaccination.

Veterinary vaccines are to improve the health and welfare of companion animals, increase production of livestock in a cost-effective manner, and prevent animal-to-human transmission from both domestic animals and wildlife. Several vaccine types can de distinguished among the second-generation veterinary vaccines, depending whether they are live or inactivated, according to the strain of rabies virus used and the characteristics of the cell substrate chosen for viral replication. More recently a third generation of live veterinary rabies vaccine has been developed using recombinant technology. Depending upon the expression system these vaccines are used either parenterally or orally. Oral rabies vaccines are widely used in foxes in Europe and in racoons in the USA.

• Current status of Veterinary Vaccines
• Safety or efficacy of a Veterinary medicine
• Vaccines for Livestock Diseases
• Animal health outcomes
• Recent Advances in Animal Vaccination

The main purpose of HIV vaccine is to protect individuals from being infected with the virus by a preventive vaccine, or treating an HIV-infected person by a therapeutic vaccine. Generally, there are two types of approaches to an HIV vaccine. In an active vaccination approach, vaccine aims to induce an immune response against HIV and in a passive vaccination approach, preformed antibodies against HIV are administered.

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) is a global non-profiting, public-private partnership working to expedite the development of vaccines to prevent HIV infection and AIDS. This organization takes an exhaustive approach to HIV and AIDS that supports existing HIV prevention and treatment programs while emphasizing the need for new AIDS prevention tools.

Biological preparations which provides active acquired immunity to a particular disease is known as Vaccines. Vaccines contain a microorganism in a weakened or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. Vaccines can be prophylactic or therapeutic. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that currently, licensed vaccines are available for twenty-five different preventable infections. For example, vaccines that have proven effective include the influenza vaccine, HPV vaccine and chicken pox vaccine. 

Dysfunction of the immune system is termed as immune disorder. These disorders can be characterized in several different ways:

• By the component(s) of the immune system affected
• By whether the immune system is overactive or underactive
• By whether the condition is congenital or acquired

International Union of Immunological Societies has characterized that, there are more than 150 primary immunodeficiency diseases (PIDs). However, the number of acquired immune-deficiencies exceeds the number of PIDs and suggested that most people have at least one primary immunodeficiency, due to redundancies in the immune system.

The study of molecules of the immune system by applying informatics techniques.  This study aims the efficient and effective prediction of immunogenicity. This may be done at the level of epitopes, sub-unit vaccines, or weakened or inactive pathogens.

The ability of a pathogen or a part or molecule of a pathogen to induce a specific immune response when first exposed to surveillance by the immune system is known as Immunogenicity. The capacity for recognition by the adaptive immune response molecular machinery in a recall response is known as Antigenicity.

Diseases associated with mosquito borne are sporadic. The mosquitoes can transmit the diseases in the form of pathogens, viruses, bacteria without getting affected themselves. The culprits are female mosquitoes, some of the parasites acts as a vector in penetrating the deadly falviviridae viruses which invades into host cell then the viral RNA which replicates and increase its ratio and weakens the immune body.

Vaccination can alter and regulate the invasion of mosquitos. But the ratio of vaccines available comparing to the modern world mosquito borne diseases are relatively low which requires focus

Use of drugs for a long time or drug abuse will lead to some complex adverse effects. In some cases, vaccines can overrule drug addicts who tend to rely totally on drugs. But there are certain drawbacks need to be considered as vaccines work by inducing antibodies in the bloodstream. Because of the variability of antibodies, protection from a structurally different drug which has the same effect as a drug of choice. Results from the ongoing clinical trials show that vaccines provide long term protection with a minimal drug.

Vaccine development remains challenging due to the highly sophisticated evasion mechanisms of pathogens for which vaccines are not yet available. Recent years have witnessed both successes and failures of novel vaccine design and the strength of iterative approaches is increasingly appreciated. These combine the discovery of novel antigens, adjuvants, and vectors in the preclinical stage with computational analyses of clinical data to accelerate vaccine design.

Basically three kinds of vaccination methods are used to provide vaccines like pulse vaccination strategy, ring vaccination and cocooning. Immunization could be a tried tool for dominant and eliminating life-threatening infectious diseases and is calculable to avert between two and three million deaths every year. It's one among the foremost efficient health investments, with tried methods. It's clearly defined target groups; it is often delivered effectively through reach activities.

A T cell is a type of lymphocyte which develops in the thymus that plays a central role in the immune response. T cells can be distinguished from other lymphocytes by the presence of a T-cell receptor on the cell surface. The name T cell originates from the thymus where they develop from precursor cells derived from the bone marrow.

B cells are also known as B lymphocytes, are a type of white blood cell of the lymphocyte subtype. They function in the humoral immunity component of the adaptive immune system by secreting antibodies. Additionally, B cells present antigen and secrete cytokines.

The word paediatrics itself associates with the prevention of infant, adult and neonatal from diseases. Pediatric vaccines provide greater immunity and resistance against deadly diseases. The baby immune system doesn’t have a robust reaction towards diseases as the body is incapable of producing antibodies up to some period. If the child is suffering from specific antibody deficiency the vaccinations will help him in doing his job. Vaccinations have numerous positive benefits which outweigh the side effects.

• Cardiology: deals with disorders of the heart and blood vessels
• Endocrinology: deals with disorders of the endocrine system and its specific secretions called hormones
• Gastroenterology: deals with the field of digestive diseases
• Hematology: deals with blood, the blood-forming organs and its disorders
• Infectious disease: deals with disease caused by a biological agent such as by a virus, bacterium or parasite
• Medical oncology: deals with the study and treatment of cancer
• Nephrology: deals with the function and diseases of the kidney
• Pulmonology: deals with diseases of the lungs and the respiratory tract
• Rheumatology: deals with the medical diagnosis and therapy of rheumatic diseases.

Immune Regulation is known as regulatory adjustment of the immune system. It has natural and human-induced forms.

• Homeostasis in the immune system, whereby the system self-regulates to adjust immune responses to adaptive rather than maladaptive levels by using regulatory T cells, cell signalling molecules.
• In Human-Induced form, immune responses are induced, amplified and attenuated or prevented according to therapeutic goals.

Autoimmunity can be defined as the system of immune responses of an organism against its own healthy cells and tissues. Diseases due to such aberrant immune responses are termed as Auto-Immune Diseases and these are treated with Steroids.

Immunology is the branch of the medical and biological sciences which focused on the study of the immune system. Protection from infection through various lines of defense is done by Immune System. Changes in the functionality of the Immune system can result in disease, such as autoimmunity, allergy and cancer. The development of many common disorders not traditionally viewed as immunologic, including metabolic, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s are contributed by Immune responses.

The branch of medicine which deals with immune responses associated with disease is termed as Immunopathology. It includes the study of the pathology of an organism, organ system, or disease with respect to the immune system, immunity, and immune responses. According to biology, it refers to damage caused to an organism by its own immune response, as a result of an infection. It could be due to mismatch between pathogen and host species, and often occurs when an animal pathogen infects a human.

• Allergy-type: heavy metals, acid anhydrides, penicillin, and propylthiouracil. 
• Direct immune toxicity: dexamethasone, cyclosporin A, azathioprine, heavy metals, and air pollution. 
• Indirect Immune toxicity: p, p'-DDE.

Vaccines are potentially beneficial on one hand but causes long term effects on other hand. Extensive use impairs the natural immune system and prone to inflammatory diseases due to the vaccines effect on androgenic immune system. Some of the inflammation requires medications and some self-heal but there are some diseases which cannot fight by body which happens to be metabolic syndrome which are associated with vaccines. Bystander activation and Molecular mimicry and are the possible ways for the vaccines to trigger the auto immune disorders. The therapies have come a long way but need to work depending upon the root cause of all this disease.

The engineered antibodies development led a path for the establishment of novel drug therapeutics. These have certain characteristics in penetrating the complex paths, promotes immune protection, Greater binding strength specifically chosen for the targets, Antibody applications used in various fields includes immunology, biotechnology and therapeutics which shows promising results.

• Medical parasitology:- which deals with the human parasites and the diseases caused by them
• Veterinary parasitology:- which deals with animal parasites
• Structural parasitology:- which studies the structures of proteins from parasites
• Quantitative parasitology:- which is the quantitative study of parasitism in a host population
• Parasite ecology:- which studies the ecological impact of parasites

The branch of medical genetics that explores or Studies the relationship between the immune system and genetics is known as Immunogenetics. Autoimmune diseases, such as type 1 diabetes, are complex genetic traits which results due to the defects in the immune system. Identification of genes defining the immune defects will identify new target genes for therapeutic approaches. Genetic variations also helps to define the immunological pathway leading to disease.

Immune tolerance can be defined as the state of unresponsiveness of the immune system to substances or tissue that has the capacity to elicit an immune response in given organism. Immune tolerance is important for normal physiology. It can be induced by prior exposure to that specific antigen and contrasts with conventional immune-mediated elimination of foreign antigens.

Tolerance is classified depending on where the state is originally induced—in the thymus and bone marrow or in other tissues and lymph nodes.

• Central tolerance: Immune system learns to discriminate self from non-self.
• Peripheral tolerance: Preventing over-reactivity of the immune system to various environmental entities such as allergens, gut microbes, etc.

Microbiology is the study of biological organisms that are too small to be seen with the naked eye (without using such tools as the magnifying glass or microscope etc). It is therefore dedicated to studying the lives and characteristics of a wide variety of organisms ranging from bacteria and archaea to parasitic worms in their environments.

Microbiology has proved to be one of the most important disciplines in biology, making it possible to identify how some of these organisms cause diseases, discover cures for such diseases and even use some microbes for industrial purposes etc.

The use of stem cells to treat or prevent a disease or condition is known as Stem-cell therapy and it is the widely used for Bone marrow transplantation, but some therapies are derived from umbilical cord blood are also in use. Research is underway in-order to develop various sources for stem cells, as well as to apply stem-cell treatments for Neuro-degenerative diseases and conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.