Logan Reed
Vaccines are a medical treatment that helps the body's immune system recognize and fight disease. While traditional vaccines are designed to prevent disease, researchers are working on developing therapeutic vaccines that treat an illness after you have it. Therapeutic vaccines work by boosting the immune system's response to an illness. They have the potential to revolutionize medical treatment, but they are not yet ready for widespread use outside of clinical trials. In the future, therapeutic vaccines could be crucial for diseases that we learn how to treat but not prevent, such as Alzheimer's disease.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Prevent or lessen the impact of illness |
| Function | Help the body's immune system recognize and fight disease |
| Administration | Injection, oral, or nasal spray |
| Effectiveness | Prevented about 508 million illnesses and 32 million hospitalizations and saved over 1.1 million lives between 1994-2023 |
| Types | Preventative, Therapeutic |
| Preventative Vaccines | Rabies, measles, COVID-19, Influenza, HPV, HBV, HCV |
| Therapeutic Vaccines | Cancer, HIV, Alzheimer's, Antigen vaccines, RNA-based poly-neoepitope vaccine, UB-311 |
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What You'll Learn
Therapeutic vaccines
While the immune system usually works effectively, some illnesses, like cancer, HIV, and Alzheimer's, do not trigger an effective immune response. Therapeutic vaccines help by forcing the immune system to recognise a virus or cancerous cell. For example, in the case of some cancers, the immune system fails to recognise invading cells. Therapeutic vaccines can be used to force the immune system into action by introducing an antigen, which provokes the immune system to create an antibody to fight it. Researchers are working on vaccines that will use specific cancer antigens to activate the immune system.
Dendritic cell vaccines are another type of therapeutic vaccine. Dendritic cells are immune cells that grab foreign germs and bring them to other immune cells, which then create antibodies to attack them. Researchers have had some success in removing dendritic cells from a person, "loading" them with dead tumour cells or viruses, and then injecting them back into the person. Once the dendritic cells have been taught how to recognise the invading cells, they spur the immune system to attack.
In 2010, the first therapeutic vaccine, Provenge, was approved by the FDA. This vaccine helped treat prostate cancer by taking a patient's own white blood cells and training them to differentiate and fight cancer cells. There are also three cancer therapeutic vaccines approved by the USA Food and Drug Administration: Provenge (Sipuleucel-T), a dendritic cell-based vaccine for prostate cancer; Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (TheraCys), a live attenuated vaccine for bladder invasive cancer; and an unnamed vaccine that uses a patient's own immune system to treat late-stage cancer.
While therapeutic vaccines are exciting, researchers urge cautious optimism, as none are close to being used outside of clinical trials. The development of therapeutic vaccines for HIV/AIDS is also being explored, with the aim of enhancing the immune systems of affected patients to fight the disease.
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Preventative vaccines
Vaccines are one of the best ways to protect community health. They have prevented countless cases of disease and saved millions of lives. Vaccines work by helping the body's immune system recognize and fight disease. When a person is exposed to a germ, their immune system develops antibodies to fight it, and they become immune to that particular germ.
In some cases, vaccines effectively block illness, while in other cases, they only prevent the most severe form of a disease. For example, the COVID-19 vaccine helps prevent people from getting dangerously sick from the virus but does not prevent infection. Similarly, the yearly flu shot only protects against the three or four most severe flu viruses that are expected to circulate that year, so it is still possible to get infected with a milder flu virus.
Vaccines have been incredibly successful in preventing serious, often fatal illnesses, especially in children and adolescents. Routine vaccinations for children born between 1994 and 2023 are estimated to have prevented about 508 million illnesses, 32 million hospitalizations, and saved over 1.1 million lives.
While preventative vaccines are the norm, researchers are also working on developing therapeutic vaccines, which would treat an illness after a person has contracted it. Therapeutic vaccines are designed to boost the immune system's response to an illness. However, none are close to being used outside of clinical trials, and experts urge cautious optimism.
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Immunotherapy
Vaccines are a medical treatment that helps the body's immune system recognize and fight disease. While traditional vaccines are designed to prevent disease, researchers are working on therapeutic vaccines that treat an illness after you have it. Therapeutic vaccines boost the immune system's response to an illness. However, none are close to being used outside of clinical trials.
There are many different types of immunotherapy, and they work in different ways. The type used depends on the cancer. Some specific types of immunotherapy include antigen vaccines, dendritic cell vaccines, and oncolytic virus therapy. Antigen vaccines introduce an antigen into the body, provoking the immune system to create an antibody to fight it. Dendritic cell vaccines stimulate the immune system to respond to an antigen on tumor cells. Oncolytic virus therapy uses lab-modified viruses to infect and kill certain tumor cells.
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Prophylactic vaccination
Vaccines are one of the most useful medical inventions of all time. They have prevented countless cases of disease and saved millions of lives over the centuries. Vaccines work by introducing antigens (substances that the immune system will attack, like dead or weakened viruses) into the body, typically via injection.
There are two broad categories of vaccines: prophylactic and therapeutic. Prophylactic vaccines, also known as preventative vaccines, are designed to defend against or prevent disease. They do this by introducing antigens associated with an illness into a person's body, prompting the individual's immune system to create antibodies for those antigens, and thereby becoming immune to the associated illness. Most vaccines that people get are prophylactic vaccines. However, they are not guaranteed to be 100% effective, and it is still possible for a vaccinated person to become ill from a virus.
Examples of prophylactic vaccines include Gardasil and Cervarix, which are HPV vaccines that can prevent cervical cancer by preventing infection with HPV.
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Vaccines for COVID-19
Vaccines are medical treatments that help the body's immune system recognize and fight disease. They are available for many dangerous and deadly diseases, and have prevented countless cases of disease, saving millions of lives. Vaccines can be administered via injection, orally, or through a nasal spray.
While the COVID-19 vaccines have been instrumental in saving lives, there have been rare reports of long-term adverse reactions. For example, a suspect in a CDC shooting allegedly blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for his health issues, including weight loss, swallowing problems, and gastrointestinal issues. However, such cases are uncommon, and the vaccines have been studied for decades, playing a crucial role in mitigating the pandemic.
In addition to preventative vaccines like the one for COVID-19, researchers are also working on therapeutic vaccines, which are designed to treat an illness after a person has contracted it. Therapeutic vaccines aim to boost the immune system's response to an illness. They hold potential for treating diseases that cannot be prevented with a vaccine, such as Alzheimer's. However, therapeutic vaccines are still in the early stages of development, and none are close to being used outside of clinical trials.
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Frequently asked questions
Therapeutic vaccines are vaccinations that treat an illness after you have it. They work by boosting your immune system's response to an illness.
Therapeutic vaccines are still in the clinical trial phase and are not yet available for use.
The BCG vaccine, given since 1921 to protect against tuberculosis, has also been used to treat bladder cancer. Gardasil and Cervarix are HPV vaccines that can prevent cervical cancer.
Therapeutic vaccines have the potential to treat diseases such as cancer, HIV, Alzheimer's, and autoimmune diseases.
Therapeutic vaccines could provide a new mode of treatment with improved efficacy and fewer side effects than existing therapies. They can also be crucial for diseases that we learn how to treat but not prevent.
