New Developments in Viral Vaccine Technologies (Intervirology)

Special Topic Issue: Intervirology 2002, Vol. 45, No. 4-6 The development of effective antiviral vaccines requires an interdisciplinary collaboration between physicians, epidemiologists, researchers in basic virology and immunology, and experts in vaccine development. To meet this need, the Third International Workshop on ‘Virus-Like Particles as Vaccines’ was held in Berlin in September 2001, from which most of the presentations included in this special issue arose. The papers summarize current knowledge regarding the molecular biology, pathogenicity, epidemiology and immunology of hepatitis B virus, human immunodeficiency virus, human papilloma virus and hantavirus infections. A comparative evaluation of different vaccine approaches to combat these viruses is essential. Therefore, various strategies for vaccine development based on live attenuated, recombinant and inactivated viruses, virus-like particles, recombinant proteins, synthetic peptides and naked DNA are discussed in detail. In addition, the exploitation of virus-like particles for the generation of vaccines against other infectious diseases is considered. Scientists and students in the fields of virology, immunology, vaccinology and AIDS research as well as representatives of pharmaceutical companies will greatly benefit from the up-to-date findings presented in this publication.