Technologies for enhanced efficacy of DNA vaccines

Abstract

Despite many years of research, human DNA vaccines have yet to fulfill their early promise. Over the past 15 years, multiple generations of DNA vaccines have been developed and tested in preclinical models for prophylactic and therapeutic applications in the areas of infectious disease and cancer, but have failed in the clinic. Thus, while DNA vaccines have achieved successful licensure for veterinary applications, their poor immunogenicity in humans when compared with traditional protein-based vaccines has hindered their progress. Many strategies have been attempted to improve DNA vaccine potency including use of more efficient promoters and codon optimization, addition of traditional or genetic adjuvants, electroporation, intradermal delivery and various prime–boost strategies. This review summarizes these advances in DNA vaccine technologies and attempts to answer the question of when DNA vaccines might eventually be licensed for human use.

Keywords::

• adjuvant
• cytokine
• DNA
• electroporation
• immunization
• plasmid
• vaccine

Disclaimer

The contents of this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported in part by contracts U01 AI061142 and HHSN272200800039C from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services. N Petrovsky and F Saade are affiliated with Vaxine Pty Ltd, an Australian company with intellectual property in the area of vaccine adjuvants. 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.