Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, Siena, Italy.
Microb Biotechnol. 2012 Mar;5(2):149-55. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-7915.2011.00276.x. Epub 2011 Aug 31.
Conventional vaccines have been extremely successful in preventing infections by pathogens expressing relatively conserved antigens through antibody-mediated effector mechanisms. Thanks to vaccination some diseases have been eradicated and mortality due to infectious diseases has been significantly reduced. However, there are still many infections that are not preventable with vaccination, which represent a major cause of mortality worldwide. Some of these infections are caused by pathogens with a high degree of antigen variability that cannot be controlled only by antibodies, but require a mix of humoral and cellular immune responses. Novel technologies for antigen discovery, expression and formulation allow now for the development of vaccines that can better cope with pathogen diversity and trigger multifunctional immune responses. In addition, the application of new genomic assays and systems biology approaches in human immunology can help to better identify vaccine correlates of protection. The availability of novel vaccine technologies, together with the knowledge of the distinct human immune responses that are required to prevent different types of infection, should help to rationally design effective vaccines where conventional approaches have failed.
传统疫苗通过抗体介导的效应机制，在预防表达相对保守抗原的病原体感染方面取得了巨大成功。由于疫苗接种，一些疾病已经被消灭，传染病导致的死亡率也显著降低。然而，仍有许多感染无法通过疫苗预防，这是全球范围内主要的死亡原因之一。其中一些感染是由具有高度抗原变异性的病原体引起的，仅通过抗体无法控制，而需要体液和细胞免疫反应的混合。新的抗原发现、表达和配方技术现在可以开发出能够更好应对病原体多样性并引发多功能免疫反应的疫苗。此外，在人类免疫学中应用新的基因组分析和系统生物学方法有助于更好地确定疫苗保护的相关性。新型疫苗技术的出现，以及预防不同类型感染所需的不同人类免疫反应的知识，应该有助于合理设计在传统方法失败的情况下有效的疫苗。
