The Non-Specific Effects (NSE) of vaccines refers to any other effect of a given vaccine, other than the intended effect of reducing disease from the specific vaccination. This area of public health has received a large amount of attention in recent years, with arguments on both sides suggesting that vaccines have either beneficial or detrimental NSE. So, where did it all start, what does it al...

The discovery of vaccination by Jenner, as well as the development of the principle of vaccines by Pasteur, had an enormous impact on the eradication of many infectious diseases. These developments opened the road to the development of attenuated (i.e., live) or inactivated (i.e., noninfectious) vaccines; however, such vaccines are not without problems and can have detrimental effects. Indeed, ...

1. Abstract 2. Introduction 2.1. Mechanisms of influenza virus evolution 2.2. Resurgence of influenza vaccinology 3. Current influenza vaccines 3.1. Inactivated vaccines 3.2. Live attenuated vaccines 3.3. Limitations of current influenza vaccine strategies 4. Reverse genetics 4.1. Creation of high-growth reassortant vaccine strains 4.2. Other uses of reverse genetics in influenza vaccines 4.3. ...

Circulating immunoglobulin E (IgE) is one of the characteristics of human allergic diseases including allergic asthma. We recently showed that infection of human B cells with rhinovirus or measles virus could lead to the initial steps of IgE class switching. Since many viral vaccines are live viruses, we speculated that live virus vaccines may also induce IgE class switching in human B cells. T...

Although RSV has been a high priority for vaccine development, efforts to develop a safe and effective vaccine have yet to lead to a licensed product. Clinical and epidemiologic features of RSV disease suggest there are at least 4 distinct target populations for vaccines, the RSV naïve young infant, the RSV naïve child ≥ 6 months of age, pregnant women (to provide passive protection to newborns...

In 2020, the world faced a new pandemic. The corona infection hit an unprepared world, and there were no medicines vaccines against it. Research to develop started immediately in remarkably short time several became available. However, despite initiatives for global equitable access COVID-19 vaccines, have so far become accessible only minor part of population. this article, I discuss distribut...

The current tuberculosis (TB) vaccine, bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG), is a live vaccine used worldwide, as it protects against severe forms of the disease, saving thousands of lives every year, but its efficacy against pulmonary forms of TB, responsible for transmission of the diseases, is variable. For more than 80 years now no new TB vaccines have been successfully developed. Over the last de...

I nactivated vaccines now are commonly-used tools to stimulate the immune systems of layers and breeders. For viral antigens, inactivated vaccines are used primarily to induce a prolonged antibody response in birds which have previously received live virus vaccines. For bacterial antigens, these vaccines are typically used in birds which have not previously been vaccinated with a live bacterial...

The conventional, currently available vaccines, though quite successful, suffer from a few shortcomings which hamper future vaccine development. We present herewith some of the new approaches that are presently being pursued, including (1) the development of recombinant, or genetically engineered, vaccines which are based either on the expression of the relevant protective antigen and its formu...