Antigens will have two components, one eliciting antibody (and immune) response and bind with them, and two virulence, contribute in pathogenesis. Thus in vaccination virulence component of the antigen is attenuated to retain its capacity to produce immune response. In other words, virulent antigen(s) on attenuation can be protective.
It depends on pathogens you are looking for. Since genomic sequence of most of pathogens are available, you will have to fish out sequence of antigen of your interest and then analyze.