Mucosal vaccines: promising strategy, constant challenges

Abstract

The current pandemic of the new coronavirus has exposed the enormous need for health professionals to understand, more up-to-date and in depth, the fundamental concepts and technological trends in the field of vaccination. The simple classification of vaccines for human use according to the ability to replicate the basic antigenic principle, into “live” and “non-live”, is no longer sufficient. Currently, it is necessary to know the technological production platform, which is directly correlated with the mechanism of action of each vaccine. We then added, in our practice, terms such as messenger RNA vaccine, recombinant proteins, subunits, among others. It is also important to recognize whether the presentation of the antigenic principle is given parenterally or by transport through the mucosa. Most vaccines are administered parenterally (intramuscularly and subcutaneously), but vaccines administered orally are still widely used, which use the gastrointestinal mucosa to generate an immune response.