Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2025 Mar 13;13(3):308.
doi: 10.3390/vaccines13030308.

Vaccination Strategies: Mixing Paths Versus Matching Tracks

Affiliations
Review

Vaccination Strategies: Mixing Paths Versus Matching Tracks

Achilleas Livieratos et al. Vaccines (Basel). .

Abstract

Vaccination strategies play a pivotal role in achieving broad and robust immune protection. With the advent of new technologies and challenges posed by emerging infectious diseases such as SARS-CoV-2, evaluating the efficacy of homologous (matching tracks) and heterologous (mixing paths) vaccination regimens is critical. This article explores mechanistic insights and empirical evidence on the benefits and limitations of these approaches.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; adaptive immunity; heterologous vaccination; homologous vaccination.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Immune profile after homologous and heterologous immunization.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Deming M.E., Lyke K.E. A ’mix and match’ approach to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Nat. Med. 2021;27:1510–1511. doi: 10.1038/s41591-021-01463-x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Garg I., Sheikh A.B., Pal S., Shekhar R. Mix-and-Match COVID-19 Vaccinations (Heterologous Boost): A Review. Infect. Dis. Rep. 2022;14:537–546. doi: 10.3390/idr14040057. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bhatnagar N., Kim K.H., Subbiah J., Muhammad-Worsham S., Park B.R., Liu R., Grovenstein P., Wang B.Z., Kang S.M. Heterologous Prime-Boost Vaccination with Inactivated Influenza Viruses Induces More Effective Cross-Protection than Homologous Repeat Vaccination. Vaccines. 2023;11:1209. doi: 10.3390/vaccines11071209. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Pardo I., Maezato A.M., Callado G.Y., Gutfreund M.C., Hsieh M.K., Lin V., Kobayashi T., Salinas J.L., Subramanian A., Edmond M.B., et al. Effectiveness of heterologous and homologous COVID-19 vaccination among immunocompromised individuals: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis. Antimicrob. Steward. Healthc. Epidemiol. 2024;4:e152. doi: 10.1017/ash.2024.369. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Adnan N., Haq M.A., Akter S., Sajal S., Islam M.F., Mou T.J., Jamiruddin M.R., Jubyda F.T., Islam M.S., Tuli J.F., et al. Antibody Response after Homologous and Heterologous Prime-Boost COVID-19 Vaccination in a Bangladeshi Residential University Cohort. Vaccines. 2024;12:482. doi: 10.3390/vaccines12050482. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources