VPB 321: Animal Biotechnology (2+1)

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF SUBUNIT VACCINE 

Advantages

• Using purified protein (s) as an immunogen ensures that the preparation is stable and safe.
• They are precisely defined chemically.
• Free of extraneous proteins and nucleic acids that can initiate undesirable side effects.

Disadvantages

• Purification of a specific protein can be costly.
• The isolated protein may not have the same conformation as it does in situ (i.e. within viral capsid or envelope), with the result it is antigenically altered.