Progress in the development of DNA vaccines against foot-and-mouth disease

Abstract

DNA vaccines are, in principle, the simplest yet most versatile methods of inducing protective humoral and cellular immune responses. Research involving this type of vaccine against veterinary diseases began in the early 1990s and has since seen the evaluation of more than 30 important viral pathogens, including the economically important foot-and-mouth disease. With the demonstration that DNA vaccines protect against foot-and-mouth disease in sheep and pigs, and the advantages these DNA vaccines have over the conventional formulations, this approach may provide a better solution to the control of this disease. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of DNA vaccination strategies for foot-and-mouth disease reported in the literature, in which we highlight the studies that have reported protection in the key target species.

Keywords::

• adjuvant
• antibody response
• cellular response
• foot-and-mouth disease
• immunization
• plasmid DNA
• protection
• target species
• vaccines

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank H-H Takamatsu and SJ Cox for the critical reading of this manuscript.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors were supported by a BBSRC grant BB/E011403/1 awarded to PV Barnett and H-H Takamatsu (Institute for Animal Health). P Barnett is a Jenner Investigator. 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.