Abstract
DNA vaccination has been studied in the last 20 years for HIV vaccine research. Significant experience has been accumulated in vector design, antigen optimization, delivery approaches and the use of DNA immunization as part of a prime-boost HIV vaccination strategy. Key historical data and future outlook are presented. With better understanding on the potential of DNA immunization and recent progress in HIV vaccine research, it is anticipated that DNA immunization will play a more significant role in the future of HIV vaccine development.
Highlights
More than 20 years have passed since the introduction of the concept of the DNA vaccine when several groups of scientists independently reported the use of this novel technology to elicit immune responses in small animal models against either a marker protein [1] or various model viral antigens [2,3,4,5,6,7]
The HIV-1 DNA vaccine was among this first group of initial reports [2,3], but was one of the first DNA vaccines tested in non-human primates [8,9,10,11] and the first tested in humans [12,13,14]
Live attenuated vaccines are capable of eliciting high quality T cell immune responses but given safety concerns associated with a modified live pathogen, the selection of this form of vaccine has been declining since the middle of the 20th century
Summary
More than 20 years have passed since the introduction of the concept of the DNA vaccine when several groups of scientists independently reported the use of this novel technology to elicit immune responses in small animal models against either a marker protein [1] or various model viral antigens [2,3,4,5,6,7]. Inactivated, subunit, or recombinant protein vaccines, which represent the majority of licensed human vaccines, are known to be poorly immunogenic towards the elicitation of T cell immune responses, especially CD8+ T cell responses. A vision will be presented on the transition from using DNA immunization, mainly for the induction of T cells, to the promising future of using this technology to elicit high quality antibody responses in the post-RV144 HIV vaccine landscape
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