Structure Based Vaccines

Question 1

What does structure based vaccine design focus on?

Answer 1

Targeting a structure on a pathogen that is highly conserved and unlikely to change over time.

Question 2

What kind of key epitopes are identified when designing a structure based vaccine?

Answer 2

Those that are potentially able to trigger an immune response in a host.

Question 3

In what three ways can an antigen be altered to improve immune response?

Answer 3

1. Stabilized
2. Mutated
3. Modified

Question 4

What are the five steps of developing and testing a new vaccine?

Answer 4

1. Cultivation of pathogen
2. Antigen identification
3. Vaccine design
4. Pre-clinical trials
5. Clinical trials

Question 5

What are the pros of creating a vaccine with multiple epitopes?

Answer 5

Allows for immunity against variants of a pathogen

Question 6

What are the pros of creating vaccine with a hybrid (engineered) antigen?

Answer 6

Potential for causing a more robust immune response, or causing a response towards a more conserved epitope.