Cryptic epitope for antibodies should not be forgotten in vaccine design (Editorial)

Abstract

Vaccines have been licensed to prevent infection with approximately 25 different organisms [1]; of these, one-third are subunit vaccines containing critical antigens capable of inducing protective antibodies against single strains. The challenge is that many organisms have multiple strains. For this reason, vaccines have only been developed against two diversified organisms – Streptococcus pneumoniae and Human Papilloma Virus – using a polyvalent vaccine approach.