10.1.4 Recombinant Vaccines

Recombinant DNA technology has been used to produce new generation vaccines. The limitations of traditional vaccine production could be overcome by this approach. The recombinant vaccines are generally of uniform quality and produce less side effects as compared to the vaccines produced by conventional methods. Different types of recombinant vaccines include subunit recombinant vaccines, attenuated recombinant vaccines and DNA vaccines.

Subunit recombinant vaccines Vaccines that use components of a pathogenic organism rather than the whole organism are called subunit vaccines ; recombinant DNA technology is very suited for developing new subunit vaccines. It includes components like proteins, peptides and DNAs of pathogenic organisms. The advantages of these vaccines include their purity in preparation, stability and safe use. Attenuated recombinant vaccines This includes genetically modified pathogenic organisms (bacteria or viruses) that are made nonpathogenic and are used as vaccines.

It is now possible to genetically engineer the organisms (bacteria or viruses) and use them as live vaccines and such vaccines are referred to as attenuated recombinant vaccines.