science

Therapeutic vaccines

Therapeutic vaccines is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Therapeutic vaccines rather than just read about it. In short: A therapeutic vaccine is a vaccine which is administered after a disease or infection has already occurred. A therapeutic vaccine works by activating the immune system of a patient to fight an infection.

Key takeaways

Therapeutic vaccines belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Therapeutic vaccines to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Therapeutic vaccines from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A therapeutic vaccine is a vaccine which is administered after a disease or infection has already occurred. A therapeutic vaccine works by activating the immune system of a patient to fight an infection. A therapeutic vaccine differs from a prophylactic vaccine in that prophylactic vaccines are administered to individuals as a precautionary measure to avoid the infection or disease while therapeutic vaccines are administered after the individual is already affected by the disease or infection. A therapeutic vaccine fights an existing infection in the body rather than immunizing the body for protection against future diseases and infections. Therapeutic vaccines are mostly used against viral infections. Patients affected with chronic viral infections are administered with therapeutic vaccines, as their immune system is not able to produce enough efficient antibodies. Provenge, developed by Dendreon, was the first therapeutic vaccine approved by the FDA in 2010. This therapeutic vaccine helped in treating prostate cancer where patients' own white blood cells (WBCs) were taken and treated with drug (vaccine) to train them to differentiate and fight cancer cells.

Functionality Therapeutic vaccines are a new form of vaccines that are mostly being used for viral infections and various types of cancers. A therapeutic vaccine helps an immune system to recognise a foreign agent such as cancerous cells or a virus. The specific type of therapeutic vaccines include antigen vaccines. In case of antigen vaccines, the body is introduced to a foreign agent to activate the immune system so that it recognizes the agent when later encountered.

Types There are two types of therapeutic vaccines:

Autologous vaccines Autologous means 'derived from oneself' – an autologous vaccine is a personalized vaccine which is made from an individual's own cells which could be either cancer cells or immune system cells.

Allogeneic vaccines Allo means 'other'. Allogeneic vaccines are primarily cancer vaccines which are made from a different individual's cancer cells which are grown in a lab.

How therapeutic vaccines differ from prophylactic vaccines Therapeutic vaccines are a method of treatment, not prevention. Like any other vaccine, the immune system is regulated against a specific type of target. The main goal is to enhance the immune system activity. This type of vaccine can be employed for the treatment of various type of diseases and viral infections. Efforts are being made to develop vaccines against various fatal diseases such as HIV, cancer, dengue fever, cholera, Diphtheria, etc.

Therapeutic vaccines against HIV HIV has no vaccine up until now, but therapeutic vaccines could be a breakthrough for HIV. Such vaccines would enhance affected patients' immune systems to fight the disease. People affected with HIV can suppress HIV to an undetectable level with the use of antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, ART cannot cure HIV infection, and therapeutic vaccines may enhance immune functions to potentially cure HIV. If therapeutic vaccines for HIV work out, many lives will be saved. Many clinical trials are being conducted for HIV therapeutic vaccines, such as those conducted by AIDSinfo, summaries for their trials are available at their website.

Therapeutic vaccine against cancers Cancer types and stages have enhanced with time and so has efforts to treat cancer. In 2017 there were about 369 cancer vaccine studies ongoing all around the world. There are three cancer therapeutic vaccines which are approved by USA Food and Drug Administration: Provenge is Sipuleucel-T, a dendritic cell based vaccine for prostate cancer. Bacillus Calmettle-Guerin (TheraCys) is a live attenuated vaccine which makes use of Mycobacterium bovis strain for bladder invasive cancer. Talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC or Imlygic) is a vaccine for advanced oncolytic melanoma

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Therapeutic vaccines

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Therapeutic vaccines claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Therapeutic vaccines before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Therapeutic vaccines ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Therapeutic vaccines

In research: Therapeutic vaccines appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Therapeutic vaccines in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Therapeutic vaccines is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cancer vaccines, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Therapeutic vaccines outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Therapeutic vaccines in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Therapeutic vaccines means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Therapeutic vaccines out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Therapeutic vaccines in simple terms?

Why does Therapeutic vaccines matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Therapeutic vaccines?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Therapeutic vaccines.