Exploiting the Redundancy in the Immune System : Vaccines Can Mediate Protection by Eliciting ‘Unnatural’ Immunity

The fields of vaccinology and immunology have had a long-standing and complicated relationship. The view that vaccinology is a branch of immunology is more perception than reality. Vaccinology is older, practical, and often idiosyncratic, with its prime focus on the development of functional vaccines that protect a host against a particular microbe. Immunology is younger, conceptual, and strives to explain how a remarkably complex system recognizes and protects against internal and external threats without committing suicide. Vaccinology has been largely microbe-centered, clinically successful, and mostly empirical, whereas immunology has been largely host-centered, having struggled to translate its theoretical success and potential into clinical applicability. In this commentary, we examine the divide between vaccinology and immunology and put forth the view that vaccines often protect against infectious diseases by eliciting ‘unnatural’ immunity: immune responses that differ from and may even counteract those that arise during the...