VACCINE TECHNOLOGY: VACCINE
COMPONENTS AND CURRENTLY USED
VACCINES
1: VACCINE COMPONENTS
- Key ingredient of vaccines = 1/+1 active ingredients (usually Antigens)
- Sometimes also adjuvants are added + detoxified toxins + plain water
o Water = main component of vaccines it is a carrier
- Actual active ingredient = 50-100 µL (very small amount!)
- List of vaccine ingredients: may include products used during the manufacturing process,
even if they don’t remain in the finished product!
- Many substances of the vaccine are also naturally found in the body!
o Many vaccines contain salts based on sodium & potassium
o Also formaldehyde is in the blood stream
- All vaccine ingredients = present in small amounts, there is no evidence that they cause harm
in these amounts.
o Exception: the small nr of people who may have allergic reactions to a vaccine
ingredient, even if it is present in this trace amounts… (eg egg proteins or antibiotics
used in vaccine manufacturing)
The main part injected with vaccines = liquid!
4 types of vaccine components:
1. Active ingredients
2. Added ingredients
3. Products used in vaccine manufacturing (some medium)
4. Residues from growing/producing the active ingredients
COMPONENT 1: ACTIVE INGREDIENTS
- Active ingredients = parts of the vaccine made from viruses/bacteria
(usually antigens)
- Many vaccines contain only parts of the pathogen (proteins/sugars from
the surface)
- Some vaccines contain whole viruses/bacteria it will be weakened
(attenuated) = they cannot cause disease in healthy people, or killed
(inactivated)
- To know the active ingredient = know the vaccine type!
o Live-attenuated vaccine = then we know it contains a whole virus
or bacteria, that is weakened.
o See previous chapter for vaccine types!
- Vaccines: contain only small quantities of the active ingredient
(µg/vaccine)
1
, - Compared with the nr of viruses and bacteria in the environment that our bodies have to
deal with every day, the amount of active ingredient in a vaccine = small (exposure)
COMPONENT 2: ADDED INGREDIENTS
1. ADJUVANTS
- Aluminum salts, oil-based adjuvants,… see lecture Prof. Di Pasquale
2. THIOMERSAL
- Antiseptic & antifungal
- Mercury-based preservative used in tiny quantities in some vaccines (multidose vials) 1MERCURY
prevent growth of bacteria and fungi they would contaminate from the environment,
when the vaccine is opened! (S. Aureus)
- NO longer used in vaccines for routine childhood vaccination in the EU, US and other
countries (except some flu vaccines)
o Still used in some: multidose flu vaccines, Diphtheria, tetanus and some biologicals
3. GELATINE
- Gelatine = stabilizer in some live vaccines protect live viruses against temperature effects
- Gelatine in vaccines = highly purified & hydrolyzed (broken down by water)
o So different from natural gelatine used in foods
- CAN cause allergic reactions to vaccines
- Religious concerns animal-origin
- Some vaccines with gelatine:
o Nasal flu vaccines
o One of the MMR vaccines
o Shingles vaccine
o One of the chickenpox vaccines
4. SORBITOL & OTHER STABILIZERS
- Used in small amounts in some vaccines as stabilizer
- Produced naturally in the human body, fruit and berries, as sweetener or cryoprotectant in
foods/drinks, in cosmetics, toothpaste, and mouth wash
- Sorbitol = usually harmless
o But people with allergy to sorbitol, or with rare inherited problems of fructose
intolerance, should not receive vaccines containing sorbitol (they are rare)
5. OTHER STABILIZERS IN VACCINES
- Sugar (sucrose)
- Mannitol (~ sorbitol)
- Glycerol = common non-toxic substance, used as food additive
- Medium 199 = solution with AAs (building blocks for proteins), mineral salts and vitamins
- Arginine hydrochloride = common AA
- Monosodium glutamate = salt made from the common AA glutamine
- Urea = harmless organic compound found in the human body
2
COMPONENTS AND CURRENTLY USED
VACCINES
1: VACCINE COMPONENTS
- Key ingredient of vaccines = 1/+1 active ingredients (usually Antigens)
- Sometimes also adjuvants are added + detoxified toxins + plain water
o Water = main component of vaccines it is a carrier
- Actual active ingredient = 50-100 µL (very small amount!)
- List of vaccine ingredients: may include products used during the manufacturing process,
even if they don’t remain in the finished product!
- Many substances of the vaccine are also naturally found in the body!
o Many vaccines contain salts based on sodium & potassium
o Also formaldehyde is in the blood stream
- All vaccine ingredients = present in small amounts, there is no evidence that they cause harm
in these amounts.
o Exception: the small nr of people who may have allergic reactions to a vaccine
ingredient, even if it is present in this trace amounts… (eg egg proteins or antibiotics
used in vaccine manufacturing)
The main part injected with vaccines = liquid!
4 types of vaccine components:
1. Active ingredients
2. Added ingredients
3. Products used in vaccine manufacturing (some medium)
4. Residues from growing/producing the active ingredients
COMPONENT 1: ACTIVE INGREDIENTS
- Active ingredients = parts of the vaccine made from viruses/bacteria
(usually antigens)
- Many vaccines contain only parts of the pathogen (proteins/sugars from
the surface)
- Some vaccines contain whole viruses/bacteria it will be weakened
(attenuated) = they cannot cause disease in healthy people, or killed
(inactivated)
- To know the active ingredient = know the vaccine type!
o Live-attenuated vaccine = then we know it contains a whole virus
or bacteria, that is weakened.
o See previous chapter for vaccine types!
- Vaccines: contain only small quantities of the active ingredient
(µg/vaccine)
1
, - Compared with the nr of viruses and bacteria in the environment that our bodies have to
deal with every day, the amount of active ingredient in a vaccine = small (exposure)
COMPONENT 2: ADDED INGREDIENTS
1. ADJUVANTS
- Aluminum salts, oil-based adjuvants,… see lecture Prof. Di Pasquale
2. THIOMERSAL
- Antiseptic & antifungal
- Mercury-based preservative used in tiny quantities in some vaccines (multidose vials) 1MERCURY
prevent growth of bacteria and fungi they would contaminate from the environment,
when the vaccine is opened! (S. Aureus)
- NO longer used in vaccines for routine childhood vaccination in the EU, US and other
countries (except some flu vaccines)
o Still used in some: multidose flu vaccines, Diphtheria, tetanus and some biologicals
3. GELATINE
- Gelatine = stabilizer in some live vaccines protect live viruses against temperature effects
- Gelatine in vaccines = highly purified & hydrolyzed (broken down by water)
o So different from natural gelatine used in foods
- CAN cause allergic reactions to vaccines
- Religious concerns animal-origin
- Some vaccines with gelatine:
o Nasal flu vaccines
o One of the MMR vaccines
o Shingles vaccine
o One of the chickenpox vaccines
4. SORBITOL & OTHER STABILIZERS
- Used in small amounts in some vaccines as stabilizer
- Produced naturally in the human body, fruit and berries, as sweetener or cryoprotectant in
foods/drinks, in cosmetics, toothpaste, and mouth wash
- Sorbitol = usually harmless
o But people with allergy to sorbitol, or with rare inherited problems of fructose
intolerance, should not receive vaccines containing sorbitol (they are rare)
5. OTHER STABILIZERS IN VACCINES
- Sugar (sucrose)
- Mannitol (~ sorbitol)
- Glycerol = common non-toxic substance, used as food additive
- Medium 199 = solution with AAs (building blocks for proteins), mineral salts and vitamins
- Arginine hydrochloride = common AA
- Monosodium glutamate = salt made from the common AA glutamine
- Urea = harmless organic compound found in the human body
2
