The leaders of Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group are emphasizing the need for increased long-term study of vaccines and their mechanisms with future safety of patients in mind.
Gregory Poland, M.D., and Richard Kennedy, Ph.D., write in their commentary in the journal Nature Reviews Immunology that greater focus on understanding vaccines’ downstream effects, not only on immunity but also on all the other biological systems will provide information that can help make vaccines safer for all and increase public trust in vaccines.
They call for:
- Increased study of molecular, genetic and immunological mechanisms of vaccines
- This will help researchers understand and avoid the adverse effects of vaccines.
- Continued research on adjuvants
- Adjuvants, which are substances that enhance immunity, allow researchers to fine-tune interventions to specific conditions or subsets of disease. In other words, they make targeting more accurate.
- A “systems biology” approach
- This approach considers all potential interactions and downstream effects that may interfere with other normal body systems.
- Enhanced surveillance of participants
- This surveillance would include reactions during clinical trials and in routine clinical practice long after a trial has concluded.
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