subunit vaccine
Quick Summary
Vaccines work by imitating an infection to prompt the body to create antibodies. This process enhances the immune system's memory, enabling it to fight off future encounters with the same infectious agent.
Subunit vaccines are a type of vaccine that uses only parts of the infectious agent, typically surface proteins, to stimulate an immune response. These vaccines are known for generally producing long-lasting immunity. Other vaccine types include live attenuated vaccines, DNA vaccines, and RNA vaccines, each with unique methods of mimicking infection and generating immunity. Vaccines are made by first producing an antigen, which can be an inactivated pathogen, a purified subunit, or a recombinant protein, and then purifying it before adding stabilizing ingredients for large-scale production and distribution.12
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