{"title":"The development of DNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2","authors":"Kanwal Khalid, Chit Laa Poh","doi":"10.1016/j.advms.2023.05.003","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>The COVID-19 pandemic exerted significant impacts on public health and global economy. Research efforts to develop vaccines at warp speed against SARS-CoV-2 led to novel mRNA, viral vectored, and inactivated vaccines being administered. The current COVID-19 vaccines incorporate the full S protein of the SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan strain but rapidly emerging variants of concern (VOCs) have led to significant reductions in protective efficacies. There is an urgent need to develop next-generation vaccines which could effectively prevent COVID-19.</p></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><p>PubMed and Google Scholar were systematically reviewed for peer-reviewed papers up to January 2023.</p></div><div><h3>Results</h3><p>A promising solution to the problem of emerging variants is a DNA vaccine platform since it can be easily modified. Besides expressing whole protein antigens, DNA vaccines can also be constructed to include specific nucleotide genes encoding highly conserved and immunogenic epitopes from the S protein as well as from other structural/non-structural proteins to develop effective vaccines against VOCs. DNA vaccines are associated with low transfection efficiencies which could be enhanced by chemical, genetic, and molecular adjuvants as well as delivery systems.</p></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>The DNA vaccine platform offers a promising solution to the design of effective vaccines. The challenge of limited immunogenicity in humans might be solved through the use of genetic modifications such as the addition of nuclear localization signal (NLS) peptide gene, strong promoters, MARs, introns, TLR agonists, CD40L, and the development of appropriate delivery systems utilizing nanoparticles to increase uptake by APCs in enhancing the induction of potent immune responses.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7347,"journal":{"name":"Advances in medical sciences","volume":"68 2","pages":"Pages 213-226"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10290423/pdf/","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Advances in medical sciences","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1896112623000184","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"MEDICINE, RESEARCH & EXPERIMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3
Abstract
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic exerted significant impacts on public health and global economy. Research efforts to develop vaccines at warp speed against SARS-CoV-2 led to novel mRNA, viral vectored, and inactivated vaccines being administered. The current COVID-19 vaccines incorporate the full S protein of the SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan strain but rapidly emerging variants of concern (VOCs) have led to significant reductions in protective efficacies. There is an urgent need to develop next-generation vaccines which could effectively prevent COVID-19.
Methods
PubMed and Google Scholar were systematically reviewed for peer-reviewed papers up to January 2023.
Results
A promising solution to the problem of emerging variants is a DNA vaccine platform since it can be easily modified. Besides expressing whole protein antigens, DNA vaccines can also be constructed to include specific nucleotide genes encoding highly conserved and immunogenic epitopes from the S protein as well as from other structural/non-structural proteins to develop effective vaccines against VOCs. DNA vaccines are associated with low transfection efficiencies which could be enhanced by chemical, genetic, and molecular adjuvants as well as delivery systems.
Conclusions
The DNA vaccine platform offers a promising solution to the design of effective vaccines. The challenge of limited immunogenicity in humans might be solved through the use of genetic modifications such as the addition of nuclear localization signal (NLS) peptide gene, strong promoters, MARs, introns, TLR agonists, CD40L, and the development of appropriate delivery systems utilizing nanoparticles to increase uptake by APCs in enhancing the induction of potent immune responses.
期刊介绍：
Advances in Medical Sciences is an international, peer-reviewed journal that welcomes original research articles and reviews on current advances in life sciences, preclinical and clinical medicine, and related disciplines.
The Journal’s primary aim is to make every effort to contribute to progress in medical sciences. The strive is to bridge laboratory and clinical settings with cutting edge research findings and new developments.
Advances in Medical Sciences publishes articles which bring novel insights into diagnostic and molecular imaging, offering essential prior knowledge for diagnosis and treatment indispensable in all areas of medical sciences. It also publishes articles on pathological sciences giving foundation knowledge on the overall study of human diseases. Through its publications Advances in Medical Sciences also stresses the importance of pharmaceutical sciences as a rapidly and ever expanding area of research on drug design, development, action and evaluation contributing significantly to a variety of scientific disciplines.
The journal welcomes submissions from the following disciplines:
General and internal medicine,
Cancer research,
Genetics,
Endocrinology,
Gastroenterology,
Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine,
Immunology and Allergy,
Pathology and Forensic Medicine,
Cell and molecular Biology,
Haematology,
Biochemistry,
Clinical and Experimental Pathology.
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