Why is it challenging and counterintuitive to create vaccines for insects such as honey bees?

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BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Framing the question: The focus is on why designing vaccines for insects like honey bees is difficult and counterintuitive.
Option 1: 'Because honey bees cannot be stabbed successfully with a syringe containing the vaccine' This is a literal practical claim about injection feasibility. While technical delivery methods exist for some invertebrates, the core issue in vaccinology for insects is not about the ability to inject but about how their immune system works. So this option misattributes the challenge to a mechanical delivery problem rather than an immunological one, making it misleading.
Option 2: 'Because insects do not have adaptive immunity thus no memory of past infections, and thus no antibodies' This statement targets the fundamental immunology: many insects rely primarily on innate immunity and lack the vertebrate-like adaptive immune system with antibodies and memory. While some insects can show immune priming, they do not develop antibodies in the same way as vertebrates, and their immune memory is not the same as antibody-mediated memory. This is why traditional vaccine concepts, which rely on stimulating adaptive immunity and antibody production, do not translate directly to insects, making vaccine design for insects counterintuitive.
Further clarification: The counterintuitive aspect comes from differences between vertebrate adaptive immunity and insect immune strategies. Vaccines rely on generating specific, long-lasting adaptive responses, which insects generally do not possess in the same form. The option correctly points to the absence or difference of adaptive immunity as a central hurdle, whereas the first option misframes the issue as a purely technical delivery problem rather than a fundamental immunological one.
In summary, the second option identifies the core immunological reason vaccines are challenging for insects, while the first option describes an operational difficulty that is not the fundamental barrier to vaccine development in honey bees.

ENTOM2030/ENTOM2031 Pre-Lecture 21 quiz

Why is it challenging and counterintuitive to create vaccines for insects such as honey bees?

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