Title:Genetics and Vaccines in the Era of Personalized Medicine
Volume: 16
Issue: 1
Author(s): John Castiblanco and Juan-Manuel Anaya
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Vaccine, Personalized medicine, Genetics, HLA, Autoimmune ecology, Infection, Autoimmunity and systems biology.
Abstract: Vaccines represent the most successful and sustainable tactic to prevent and counteract
infection. A vaccine generally improves immunity to a particular disease upon administration
by inducing specific protective and efficient immune responses in all of the receiving
population. The main known factors influencing the observed heterogeneity for immune responses
induced by vaccines are gender, age, co-morbidity, immune system, and genetic background. This review is
mainly focused on the genetic status effect to vaccine immune responses and how this could contribute to the development
of novel vaccine candidates that could be better directed and predicted relative to the genetic history of an individual
and/or population. The text offers a brief history of vaccinology as a field, a description of the genetic status of the most
relevant and studied genes and their functionality and correlation with exposure to specific vaccines; followed by an inside
look into autoimmunity as a concern when designing vaccines as well as perspectives and conclusions looking towards
an era of personalized and predictive vaccinology instead of a one size fits all approach.
