Conventional vaccines inactivated

Plasma-derived hepatitis B virus vaccine is prepared from the plasma of chronic HBsAg carriers, and consists of purified, inactivated 20-nm HBsAg particles adsorbed on to an aluminium adjuvant. The use of a vaccine produced with plasma derived from infected individuals represented a major departure from conventional approaches, and safety testing has therefore been designed to cover all possibilities of risk and to ensure freedom from transmission of residual HBV and other blood-borne agents. Various clinical trials (SEDA-10, 289) (SEDA-11, 289) have confirmed the safety of plasma-derived hepatitis B virus vaccines produced by different manufacturers. Fears that plasma-derived vaccine may transmit AIDS can be considered unfounded. 

Since DNA vaccines have the potential to induce cytotoxic T-cells (CTL) more efficiently than conventional, inactivated vaccines, it may be desirable or necessary to study and characterize the specificity and functional effects of CTL responses. However, this represents a technical and practical challenge, because the assays to measure CTL are not strictly quantitative and immune cells from each vaccinated... 

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