Recent advances in DNA vaccines for autoimmune diseases

Abstract

Vaccination is one of the most powerful health tools available owing to its ability to confer protection against various diseases. The long-term impact of such protection in terms of public-health savings is nearly incalculable and becomes even more evident when considering if the vaccination concept is extended to the therapeutic potential of a given molecule. In this sense, DNA vaccines are especially important tools with enormous potential owing to the molecular precision that they offer. The properties of the plasmid DNA molecule in terms of stability, cost–effectiveness and lack of cold-chain requirement are additional advantages over traditional vaccines and therapeutics. We focus on the current knowledge of autoimmune mechanisms, engineering of DNA vaccines and attempts that have already been made in order to intervene in autoimmune processes. Our experience with a genetic vaccine containing the heat-shock protein gene (hsp65) from mycobacteria is also described.

Keywords::

• autoimmunity
• DNA vaccine
• tolerance
• Treg cell

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the students and technicians of our laboratories for their great contributions to this research.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Celio L Silva is part of Farmacore Biotechnology Ltd. Our group has received grants from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) and the Millenium Institute REDE-TB from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Brazil. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.