Vaccination with Purified Viral Proteins

Abstract

Inactivated viral vaccines currently in use consist, in most cases, of rather impure suspensions of virus particles and soluble antigens. It has been demonstrated that not all antigens of a given virus are required to induce antibody responses leading to protection. The useful proteins present in most vaccines represent, therefore, only a small proportion of their total macro-molecular composition. This applies even to the best vaccines consisting of purified suspensions of intact or disrupted virus particles. The use of vaccines containing only the purified viral components required for protection will have the following advantages:

• 1. It will eliminate superfluous proteins which may cause undesirable sensitization or toxic reactions.

• 2. It will avoid the inoculation of viral nucleic acid which, even if lacking infectivity, might retain undesirable coding potential.

• 3. It will make possible the use of higher immunizing doses.

• 4. It will make it possible for vaccine standardization to be based on chemical as well as biological criteria.