title: New approaches to hepatitis B vaccines.
abstract: Current HBV vaccines are composed of subviral forms of HBsAg purified from pooled human plasma, inactivated and absorbed to alum. These vaccines have established an excellent record of safety and efficacy in clinical trials to date. Economic factors and theoretical safety problems associated with the plasma donor population, however, have stimulated an intense interest in the development of alternative vaccines for HBV. The recombinant DNA and synthetic peptide approaches appear to offer the greatest potential for future generations of HBV vaccines. Such vaccines would be free of the potential safety problems associated with plasma source material and could assure the continued supply of uniform HBsAg for vaccine use.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004274:DNA, Recombinant / Q000378:metabolism; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D017325:Hepatitis B Vaccines; D006801:Humans; D012306:Risk; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D004274:DNA, Recombinant; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens; D017325:Hepatitis B Vaccines; D014765:Viral Vaccines