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| |  DNA Vaccines Promising New Technology Says Report WASHINGTON, MD -- December 2, 1997 -- A recent advance in vaccine technology, the DNA vaccination, will offer new safer and cheaper vaccines and may revolutionize the practice of human immunization, says a report released by the American Academy of Microbiology. The report is based on a colloquium of 25 international experts in microbiology, infectious diseases and immunology convened in 1996. "Recent results obtained from DNA-vaccine testing in animal models suggest that this new technology may revolutionize the vaccination of humans," said Harriet Robinson of Emory University, co-author of the report. "Already we have been able to induce immune responses against diarrhea-causing viruses, malarial parasites and tuberculosis." New and emerging infections, old scourges and the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria all pose a major threat to human health. Vaccines are an extremely effective way to prevent disease, but many traditional vaccine development strategies don't work on some pathogens. One example, malaria, is responsible for an estimated two million deaths annually worldwide and yet medical science has been unable to develop a vaccine to prevent it. Using DNA vaccination technology, a promising vaccine candidate has been developed for malaria. Promising DNA vaccines are currently being developed for over 15 other human illnesses including AIDS, herpes, tuberculosis and rotavirus, a common cause of childhood diarrhea. Traditional vaccination methods use either a weakened or killed version of the disease-causing organism or a component of the organism, such as inactivated toxins or proteins. These component vaccines can either be purified from the organism itself or genetically engineered. The injection or oral administration of these non-disease-causing mimics mobilizes the immune system to protect the host from the disease. "Since the first vaccine was developed for smallpox in 1789, the widespread use of vaccines has resulted in the global eradication of that disease," Dr. Robinson said. "We have also eliminated polio and measles from the United States and drastically reduced the incidence of diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, mumps and rubella. Nonetheless, infectious diseases remain major killers, despite worldwide improvements in sanitation and vaccination." DNA vaccination differs from traditional vaccines in that just the DNA coding for a specific component of a disease-causing organism is injected into the body. The DNA can be administered either in a saline solution injected through a hypodermic needle or on DNA-coated gold beads propelled into the body using gene guns. The actual production of the immunizing protein takes place in the vaccinated host. This eliminates any risk of infection associated with some live and attenuated virus vaccines. The report lists a number of other advantages DNA vaccines have over classic vaccine methods: --DNA vaccination provides long-lived immune responses, unlike many component vaccines that require multiple inoculations to maintain immunity. "It is remarkable that DNA vaccines have come so far since 1992 but their real contribution is yet to come," said Stephen Johnston of the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center, a member of the colloquium steering committee. "In the next few years we will have sequenced the genomes of most if not all of the worlds pathogens. DNA vaccines probably offer the best way to translate all that sequence information into useful vaccines. "The marriage of genomics and DNA vaccines may revolutionize vaccinology as applied to infectious diseases and cancer." This method of vaccination does have its limitations, though. The most obvious is that it is limited to developing immune responses against only the protein components of pathogens. While proteins are the major building blocks of all life, some microbes have an outer shell made of polymerized sugars, known as polysaccharides. DNA vaccines cannot substitute for the more traditional polysaccharide-based vaccines, such as the pneumococcal vaccine for bacterial pneumonia. The report calls on the scientific community to conduct the necessary research to develop DNA vaccines as quickly and efficiently as possible. Industry and the government should provide the necessary support for the research, both in the sharing of findings and funding of new projects. It calls on international organizations, such as the World Health Organization and UNICEF, to develop systems to make vaccines available to those nations that can not afford to purchase them under other circumstances. The report also comments on the role of the media. "While the potential benefits of DNA vaccines are enormous, until the true benefits are known, the media need to inform the public with cautious optimism. Unrealistic optimism could generate a backlash if hopes fail to become reality in a timely fashion," the report said. "Thus, it is important that the media play an active, yet cautious role during the development of this novel technology that holds such high promise for world health."
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