title: Biomarkers and assessment of vaccine responses.
abstract: Vaccines for infectious diseases have in the past, and will into the future, relied on a variety of surrogate markers to monitor vaccine efficacy. The primary surrogate markers have been either the antibody titer to vaccine antigens or the measurement of antibody function such as anti-viral neutralizing activity. In recent years, the measurement of T-cell function in conjunction with or independent of antibody measurements have been used to assess vaccine efficacy. ELISPOT, flow cytometry and intra-cellular staining methods are used to determine the impact of vaccines on immune mediators such as interleukins, interferons, MHC expression and pro-inflammatory mediators. The relevant B-cell and T-cell surrogate markers for vaccine efficacy is dependent on the vaccine being used, so that no universal set of surrogate markers can be applied to all vaccines. The use of T-cell surrogate markers can be complicated by the lack of sensitivity to accurately measure intra-cellular mediators. Although typically this is not a problem for infectious disease vaccines, it is a major problem for cancer vaccines.
authors.affiliation: Focus Technologies, Cypress, CA 90630, USA. whogrefe@focustechnologies.com
authors.forename: Wayne R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Hogrefe
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism*; D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D000939:Epitopes / Q000737:chemistry; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000737:chemistry; D008954:Models, Biological; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D014612:Vaccines / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D000939:Epitopes; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D014612:Vaccines