A brief account of the search for peptide vaccines

An increasing trend of viral diseases have led to search for faster response systems for preventives and therapeutics. While traditional vaccinations have led to spectacular successes against smallpox and polio viruses, the need for rapid response to new viral epidemics, like in the case of Ebola and Zika viruses, has called for new ways of tackling such infections. The fact that viral diseases are notoriously difficult to control, due primarily to their nature of fast mutational changes leading to growth of new strains and development of strains resistant to prevailing medications, adds an extra layer of complexity to the task. Peptide vaccines provide one means of responding to the epidemics. Since they are developed based on the viral sequences and focused on the antigenic sites, peptide vaccines are amenable to rational design paradigms. The first such vaccine for the canine parvovirus was developed in the 1980s and many peptide vaccines against human viral diseases are under different stages of phase trials. While production of such vaccines can be fast and cost-effective, and there are several issues still to be resolved, peptide vaccines are expected to play a major role in the future. In this very bried review we recount current status and some of the different approaches to design of peptide vaccines.