Dendritic cell-targeting DNA-based mucosal adjuvants for the development of mucosal vaccines

Abstract

In order to establish effective mucosal immunity against various mucosal pathogens, vaccines must be delivered via the mucosal route and contain effective adjuvant(s). Since mucosal adjuvants can simply mix with the antigen, it is relatively easy to adapt them for different types of vaccine development. Even in simple admixture vaccines, the adjuvant itself must be prepared without any complications. Thus, CpG oligodeoxynucleotides or plasmids encoding certain cDNA(s) would be potent mucosal adjuvant candidates when compared with other substances that can be used as mucosal adjuvants. The strategy of a DNA-based mucosal adjuvant facilitates the targeting of mucosal dendritic cells, and thus is an effective and safe approach. It would also provide great flexibility for the development of effective vaccines for various mucosal pathogens.

Keywords::

• CpG ODN
• Flt3 ligand
• mucosa
• secretory IgA
• vaccine

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Rebakah S Gilbert for her editorial help, and Sheila D Turner for assistance in the preparation of this manuscript.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This research was supported by US NIH grants AG 025873 and DE 12242, as well as Grant-in-Aids for Scientific Research (C-17592179 and C-19592403), and a grant from the Global Center of Excellence and ‘Academic Frontier’ Project for Private Universities Matching Fund Subsidy from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, and Research for Promoting Technological Seeds from Japan Science and Technology Agency (13-043). 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.