Inactivated virus vaccines from chemistry to prophylaxis: merits, risks and challenges

Abstract

The aim of this review is to make researchers aware of the benefits of an efficient quality control system for prediction of a developed vaccine’s efficacy. Two major goals should be addressed when inactivating a virus for vaccine purposes: first, the infectious virus should be inactivated completely in order to be safe, and second, the viral epitopes important for the induction of protective immunity should be conserved after inactivation in order to have an antigen of high quality. Therefore, some problems associated with the virus inactivation process, such as virus aggregate formation, protein crosslinking, protein denaturation and degradation should be addressed before testing an inactivated vaccine in vivo.

Keywords::

• 2,2’-dithiodipyridine
• β-propiolactone
• binary ethylene imine
• formaldehyde
• gamma irradiation
• glutaraldehyde
• pH
• temperature
• UV
• vaccine
• virus inactivation

Financial & competing interests disclosure

I Delrue was funded by the Agricultural Research Program from the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT-LO 040721). D Verzele and A Madder acknowledge financial support from Ghent University (BOF-01J06111). H Nauwynck acknowledges the EU (Seventh Framework Program; Project No. 245141) for financial support. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript