Question

Suppose you wish to produce a vaccine for an RNA Virus. The vaccine needs to stimulate the production of antibodies in the person receiving it, but must not cause any active viral infection due to the potential for high virulence of the virus.

Which vaccine type would be a good candidate to use? Explain your answer.

If you were to use a subunit vaccine, which of the following subunits of the virus would be best to use? Justify your answers.

i.viral membrane lipids

ii. viral capsomer proteins

iii. viral RNA genome

iv. viral RNA polymerase

Answer 1

RNA is less stable than DNA therefore, RNA virus mutate rapidly when compared to DNA virus which makes vaccination tricky for RNA virus mediated disease. Therefore, vectors mediated vaccine development and gene therapy are the best way to target RNA virus as they have high expression of foreign genes.

Viral membrane lipids containing is the best candidate for subunit vaccine as it free from viral nucleic acid and is relatively free of the adverse reactions.