Advanced Vaccination Technologies for Infectious and Chronic Diseases - Chapter 4: Subunit protein-based vaccines

Protein-based vaccines are promising formulations, making use of advancements in X-ray crystal structures, molecular biology, chemistry, immunology, and biotechnology. Protein-based or subunit vaccines require the identification of target antigens from the pathogen and are expressed using different expression systems. Although these vaccines are highly purified and safer vaccines, they lack immunogenicity, often inducing weak immune responses on their own. As such, adjuvants, carriers, and delivery vehicles have been developed to increase the immunogenicity of proteins. Once injected, antibody and cellular responses are generated which can protect against disease. The antigenic specificity of protein-based, subunit vaccines enables the avoidance of adverse effects associated with live attenuated or inactivated vaccines. Herein, we present some preclinical studies, human clinical studies, and a list of approved recombinant protein subunit vaccines for human use. Among these are the successful influenza vaccines (using hemagglutinin and neuraminidase proteins), hepatitis B surface antigen vaccine, and the human papillomavirus vaccines targeting viral capsid proteins.