Table 1.
The advantages and disadvantages of different vaccines.
| Vaccine | Advantages | Disadvantages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attenuated | Preservation of native antigen; mimicking natural infection, well-established technology, robust B and T cell response | Potential to cause infection, almost all given via syringe IM, cold chain storage, not suitable for immunocompromised | Measles, Mumps, Polio (Sabin), Rotavirus, Yellow Fever, Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG), Rubella, Varicella |
| Inactivated | Strong immune response with B cell more than T cell, waning immunity; safer than live attenuated virus—incapable of regaining pathogenicity; stable, relatively easy to scale manufacturing and distribution | Potential epitope alteration by inactivation process | Typhoid, Cholera, Hepatitis A virus, Plague, Rabies, Influenza, Polio (Salk) |
| Toxoid | Non-virulent, stable, and long lasting in storage | Typically not robustly immunogenic, require regular booster doses, local site reactions, given by injection | Diphtheria, Tetanus |
| Subunit | Readily modifiable, generally safe for immunocompromised, stable in storage and scalable in production. | Relatively less immunogenic, often require adjuvant or conjugate. Development and manufacture are typically time-consuming | Pertussis, Influenza, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae type b |
| Virus Like Particles (VLPs) | Safe and well-tolerated; mimicking native virus conformation; unable to replicate; scalable and combinable with adjuvants | Relatively complicated manufacturing process; lower stability, difficult downstream processing, high production costs, and sensitivity to environmental conditions | Hepatitis B virus, Human Papillomavirus |
| Viral vector | Strong immune response; preservation of native antigen; mimicking natural infection | Relatively complicated manufacturing process; risk of genomic integration; response dampened by pre-existing immunity against vector | Ebola virus |
| DNA/RNA | Safe and well-tolerated; highly adaptable to new pathogen; native antigen expression | Requirement of low temperature storage for RNA vaccine and transportation; potential risk of RNA-induced interferon response, risk of genomic integration for DNA vaccine. Cells do not easily take up large and polar nucleic acids. | SARS-CoV-2 |