ABSTRACT

Vaccination with live attenuated viruses in general offers a number o f advantages as a strategy to evoke an effective and long lasting immune response. Foremost among these is the possibility o f a nearly complete presentation o f the antigenic repertoire o f the pathogen to the immune system. Both structural and non-structural antigens are available to stimulate humoral and cell-mediated immune responses in association with either class I or class II H LA molecules. Antigenic structures will be appropriately presented in authentic states o f conformation and oligomerization. Taking advantage o f the infectious nature o f the virus obviates the need for an adjuvant/antigen delivery system. Obviously, the ability o f the vaccine virus to amplify will also increase the antigenic dose and influence the magnitude o f the immune response. The ability to amplify depends on the state o f attenuation or the nature o f the block to replication (as with D ISC viruses discussed below).