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Vaccines
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Advances in DNA Vaccine Research
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Advances in DNA Vaccine Research

A special issue of Vaccines (ISSN 2076-393X). This special issue belongs to the section "Nucleic Acid (DNA and mRNA) Vaccines".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2026) | Viewed by 4623

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Dabbu Jaijyan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA
Interests: Vaccines and drug development, gene therapy, DNA viruses, herpesviruses, HIV, CRISPR, AAV, lentivirus, gene therapy vectors

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Vaccines contain specific antigens, which are inactivated or weakened pathogens that trigger the immune system in vaccinated individuals. Vaccinating people can help prevent the spread of diseases and reduce the impact of pathogens. Recently, DNA vaccines have emerged as a promising method for preventing and controlling diseases. They consist of a plasmid with a DNA sequence encoding a target protein or antigen that activates the host's immune response. DNA vaccines offer many advantages, including increased stability, easy scalability and production, lack of any infectious agents, safe storage and easy handling, while also inducing both cellular and cell-mediated immunity. Additionally, the efficacy of DNA vaccines can be further enhanced by vehicles that help the contents of DNA vaccines enter specific cells. However, further research is needed to fully understand the immune response induced by DNA vaccines and its mechanisms. In this Special Issue, we welcome original research articles and reviews in the following areas:

  • DNA vaccines;
  • Methods for DNA vaccine production;
  • Methods for DNA vaccine delivery, including liposomes, nanoparticles, viral vector-based delivery and other platforms;
  • Vector design for DNA vaccines;
  • Vaccine insert design;
  • Adjuvants for DNA vaccines;
  • DNA vaccine delivery;
  • Immune response induced by DNA vaccines;
  • Applications of DNA vaccines;
  • Plasmid-based vaccines;
  • Advantages of DNA vaccines;
  • DNA vaccine formulations.

Dr. Dabbu Jaijyan
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • DNA vaccines
  • DNA-vectored vaccine
  • vectors for DNA vaccines
  • adjuvants
  • DNA vaccine delivery

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 2471 KB  
Article
Vaccination with Lipid Nanoparticle-Delivered VP2-DNA Elicits Immune Protection in Chickens Against Novel Variant Infectious Bursal Disease Virus (nVarIBDV)
by Yulong Zhang, Ziwen Wu, Hangbo Yu, Guodong Wang, Runhang Liu, Dan Ling, Erjing Ke, Xianyun Liu, Tengfei Xu, Suyan Wang, Yuntong Chen, Yongzhen Liu, Hongyu Cui, Yanping Zhang, Yulu Duan, Yulong Gao and Xiaole Qi
Vaccines 2026, 14(2), 113; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines14020113 - 24 Jan 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 869
Abstract
Background/Objective: Infectious bursal disease (IBD) is an acute and highly contagious immunosuppressive disease in chickens caused by infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV). In recent years, a novel variant IBDV (nVarIBDV) has emerged and spread widely, inducing severe immunosuppression and posing a substantial threat [...] Read more.
Background/Objective: Infectious bursal disease (IBD) is an acute and highly contagious immunosuppressive disease in chickens caused by infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV). In recent years, a novel variant IBDV (nVarIBDV) has emerged and spread widely, inducing severe immunosuppression and posing a substantial threat to the poultry industry. More importantly, owing to antigenic variations, nVarIBDV can escape the immune protection of the existing vaccines. Therefore, it is imperative to develop a new vaccine that is antigenically matched to nVarIBDV. Methods: The major protective antigen gene VP2 of the representative nVarIBDV strain SHG19 was inserted into the eukaryotic expression plasmid pCAGGS to construct the recombinant plasmid pCASHGVP2. Subsequently, pCASHGVP2 was encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) to form pCASHGVP2-LNP nanoparticles. Finally, using the SPF chicken model, the immune efficacy of pCASHGVP2-LNP was preliminarily assessed by administering two vaccine doses (10 and 20 μg) and two immunization regimens (single or double immunization). Results: Efficient VP2 protein expression from pCASHGVP2 was confirmed by in vitro transfection experiments. The prepared pCASHGVP2-LNP nanoparticles exhibited an optimal particle size distribution and acceptable polydispersity index, indicating a homogeneous formulation. Furthermore, animal experiments showed that the candidate DNA vaccine elicited specific neutralizing antibodies after double immunization and protected immunized chickens from disease induced by nVarIBDV challenge. Conclusions: This study reports the first development of an LNP-encapsulated VP2 DNA vaccine (pCASHGVP2-LNP) against nVarIBDV, highlighting its potential application for the prevention of nVarIBDV. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in DNA Vaccine Research)
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28 pages, 2582 KB  
Article
Efficacy of Plasmid DNA Delivery into Mice by Intradermal Injections Alone and Facilitated by Sonoporation or Electroporation
by Daria Avdoshina, Vladimir Valuev-Elliston, Maria Belikova, Alla Zhitkevich, Anastasia Latanova, Galina Frolova, Oleg Latyshev, Ilya Gordeychuk and Ekaterina Bayurova
Vaccines 2026, 14(1), 82; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines14010082 - 12 Jan 2026
Viewed by 706
Abstract
Background/Objectives: A key disadvantage of DNA vaccines is ineffective uptake of plasmid DNA, resulting in low immunogenicity. A way to overcome it is forced DNA delivery, which requires specialized equipment and/or reagents. Effective delivery of plasmids without specialized devices or using commonly [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: A key disadvantage of DNA vaccines is ineffective uptake of plasmid DNA, resulting in low immunogenicity. A way to overcome it is forced DNA delivery, which requires specialized equipment and/or reagents. Effective delivery of plasmids without specialized devices or using commonly available ones would significantly increase DNA vaccine applicability. Here, we delivered DNA by intradermal injections, facilitating them by optimized sonoporation (SP) or electroporation (EP), and we compared these methods by their capacity to support the production of foreign proteins in mice. Methods: DNA delivery was optimized using the plasmid encoding firefly luciferase (Luc) (pVaxLuc). Luc production was assessed by bioluminescence imaging (BLI) (IVIS, PerkinElmer, Shelton, CT, USA; LumoTrace Fluo, Abisense, Dolgoprudny, Russia). Female BALB/c mice were injected intradermally (id) with pVaxLuc in phosphate buffers of varying ionic strengths. Injection sites were subjected to SP (Intelect Mobile, Chattanooga, UK) or EP (CUY21EDITII, BEX Co., Tokyo, Japan) or left untreated. Optimal delivery protocols were selected based on the highest in vivo levels of photon flux according to BLI. Optimal protocols for id injections with/without EP were applied to DNA-immunized mice with HIV-1 clade A reverse transcriptase. Antibody response induced by DNA immunization was assessed by ELISA. Results: The optimal phosphate buffers for id delivery had ionic strengths from 81 to 163 mmol/L. The optimal SP regimen included an acoustic pressure of 2.4 W/cm2 applied in a duty cycle of 2%. The optimal EP regimen included bipolar driving pulses of 100 V, a pulse duration of 10 ms, and an interval between the pulses of 20 ms. Optimized DNA delivery by id/SP injection was inferior to both id/EP and id alone. DNA immunization with HIV-1 RT by id injections induced anti-RT antibodies in a titer of 104 and by id/EP in a titer of 105. Conclusions: Electroporation of the sites of id DNA injection provided the highest levels of production of luciferase reporters and induced a strong antibody response against HIV-1 RT. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in DNA Vaccine Research)
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18 pages, 2138 KB  
Article
Ferritin-Based HA DNA Vaccine Outperforms Conventional Designs in Inducing Protective Immunity Against Seasonal Influenza
by Hongzhe Lin, Yuxuan Jiang, Yan Li, Yiwei Zhong, Mingyue Chen, Weiyu Jiang, Rong Xiang, Najing Cao, Lei Sun, Xuanyi Wang, Lu Lu, Qiao Wang, Guangyue Han, Duan Ma and Bin Wang
Vaccines 2025, 13(7), 745; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines13070745 - 10 Jul 2025
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2347
Abstract
Background: Influenza remains a persistent public health challenge due to antigenic drift and shift, necessitating vaccines capable of eliciting broad and durable immunity. Hemagglutinin (HA) antigen serves as the critical target for eliciting protective immune responses against influenza. DNA vaccines offer distinct [...] Read more.
Background: Influenza remains a persistent public health challenge due to antigenic drift and shift, necessitating vaccines capable of eliciting broad and durable immunity. Hemagglutinin (HA) antigen serves as the critical target for eliciting protective immune responses against influenza. DNA vaccines offer distinct advantages over conventional platforms, including accelerated development and induction of both humoral and cellular immune responses. Methods: To optimize HA antigen presentation, we designed and systematically compared the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of HA antigen display strategies—bacteriophage T4 fibritin (HA-Foldon) and ferritin-based virus-like particles (HA-Ferritin)—versus monomeric HA DNA vaccines against seasonal influenza viruses. Results: HA-Ferritin showed superior structural stability. All vaccines induced similar HA-specific antibody levels, but HA-Ferritin elicited higher neutralizing antibodies and stronger T cell responses. Upon challenge, HA-Ferritin and HA-Foldon protected mice from weight loss and reduced lung virus loads by 3.27 and 0.76 times, respectively. Monomeric HA provided limited protection, with only 40% survival and minimal viral or pathological reduction. Conclusions: The HA-Ferritin DNA vaccine demonstrated enhanced immunogenicity and protection, supporting structured antigen display as a promising strategy for influenza DNA vaccine development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in DNA Vaccine Research)
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