A review of vaccine development and research for industry animals in Korea

Lee, Nak-Hyung; Lee, Jung-Ah; Park, Seung-Yong; Song, Chang-Seon; Choi, In-Soo; Lee, Joong-Bok

Subunit vaccines usually contain a part of the target pathogen so that the immune response would be against the component only. Such vaccine can be achieved by isolating a particular immunogenic protein from the pathogen and presenting it as an antigen on its own. This strategy would be preferred for many types of pathogens, relying on several techniques http://www.ecevr.org/ http://dx. doi.org/10.7774/cevr.2012.1.1.18 including genetics, biochemistry, and molecular biology to identify proper antigenic epitopes and corresponding peptides as candidate vaccine antigens. An antigen derived from bacterial surface components is cloned, expressed, purified, and its protective potential is assessed in an animal infection model. Over the past decade modern genetic techniques enabled easily identification of vaccine antigen in lieu of previous available biochemical or antigen data. Using compiled genetic information of each pathogen, sequence and analysis of the complete genome of many bacteria resulted in identification of novel candidate vaccine antigens, which is based on the structural or biochemical features of hydrophobicity and homology to that of vaccine antigen of related pathogens. The genes are expressed using foreign protein expression systems, including Escherichia coli, yeast, and insect or mammalian cells, and are then purified and injected into a host to elicit immunity.