Bull World Health Organ. 1985;63(3):479-84.
Recent advances in immunology and cell biology may make it possible to improve existing vaccines and even, in future, to obtain vaccines against complex organisms, such as parasites.With the use of modern techniques, such as monoclonal antibodies, it is now possible to identify protective epitopes (antigenic determinants that can elicit a protective immune response) and, using chemical or DNA recombinant techniques, obtain these epitopes in the laboratory. Most of these potential vaccines, however, may not be able to stimulate a sufficient immune response. To achieve this, it may be necessary to couple the vaccines to carrier molecules and to inject them together with suitable adjuvants. Better knowledge of how antigens are presented to immunocompetent cells would help in the choice of carrier molecules and adjuvants to be used with future vaccines.
免疫学和细胞生物学的最新进展可能使改进现有疫苗成为可能，甚至在未来能够获得针对诸如寄生虫等复杂生物体的疫苗。通过使用单克隆抗体等现代技术，现在有可能识别保护性表位（能够引发保护性免疫反应的抗原决定簇），并利用化学或DNA重组技术在实验室中获得这些表位。然而，这些潜在疫苗中的大多数可能无法刺激足够的免疫反应。为了实现这一点，可能有必要将疫苗与载体分子偶联，并与合适的佐剂一起注射。更好地了解抗原如何呈递给免疫活性细胞将有助于选择未来疫苗所使用的载体分子和佐剂。
