Attenuated vaccine

An attenuated vaccine is a vaccine created by reducing the virulence of a pathogen, but still keeping it viable (or "live"). Attenuation takes an infectious agent and alters it so that it becomes harmless or less virulent. These vaccines contrast to those produced by "killing" the virus (inactivated vaccine).

Examples

Examples of "live" (example attenuated) vaccines include:

Development

Viruses may be attenuated via passage of the virus through a foreign host, such as:

The initial virus population is applied to a foreign host. One or more of these will possess a mutation that enables it to infect the new host. These mutations will spread, as the mutations allow the virus to grow well in the new host; the result is a population that is significantly different from the initial population, and thus will not grow well in the original host when it is re-introduced (hence is "attenuated"). This makes it easier for the host's immune system to eliminate the agent and create the immunological memory cells which will likely protect the patient if they are infected with a similar version of the virus in "the wild".