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#subunit vaccines

3 public questions tagged with this topic.

Vaccine

Subunit vaccines consist of:

Subunit vaccines consist of specific antigenic components derived from pathogen rather than whole organism, representing purified or recombinant fractions capable of eliciting protective immunity. Components include capsular polysaccharides, detoxified toxins, recombinant surface proteins, virus-like particles formed by self assembly. Hepatitis B vaccine contains recombinant HBsAg 22 nm particles produced in Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast after cloning S gene under alcohol oxidase promoter; human papillomavirus vaccine contains L1 protein VLPs from yeast or insect cells; influenza subunit vacc

Ref: Plotkin Subunit specific components; WHO Subunit vaccines; Pulendran Adjuvants.

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Immunological Applications

Subunit vaccines contain:

Whole pathogen vaccines contain complex mixture of antigens including immunodominant protective components but also many irrelevant proteins plus reactogenic factors such as lipid A endotoxin activating TLR4 causing fever, pertussis toxin ADP-ribosylating Gi, increasing reactogenicity and rare adverse events. Subunit vaccine strategy improves safety by purifying protective antigens through biochemical fractionation, recombinant expression, or synthetic peptide synthesis excluding toxic moieties. Hepatitis B vaccine exemplifies recombinant subunit: hepatitis B small surface antigen HBsAg gene c

Ref: NCERT Class XII Biology subunit purified antigen VLP HBsAg; Pulendran Nat Immunol 2011 alum NLRP3 adjuvant acellular pertussis.

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Immunological Applications

Subunit vaccines contain:

Subunit vaccines avoid using whole infectious organism replication-competent incorporating only highly purified antigenic components capable eliciting protective immunity without risk producing disease immunocompromised pregnant elderly. Antigens include recombinant proteins hepatitis B surface antigen HBsAg 226 aa small S self-assembling 22 nm VLPs Saccharomyces cerevisiae Hansenula after methanol induction AOX1 promoter purification density gradient acellular pertussis components pertussis toxoid chemically toxoided formaldehyde hydrogen peroxide inactivation removing ADP-ribosylating activi

Ref: Plotkin Vaccines Subunit Concept Hepatitis B HBsAg Yeast; WHO Subunit Vaccine Development Production Guidelines 2022; Janeway Immunology Subunit vs Whole Organism Chapter 12.

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