Immunogenicity of COVID-eVax Delivered by Electroporation Is Moderately Impacted by Temperature and Molecular Isoforms

DNA integrity is a key issue in gene therapy and genetic vaccine approaches based on plasmid DNA. In contrast to messenger RNA that requires a controlled cold chain for efficacy, DNA molecules are considered to be more stable. In this study, we challenged this concept by characterizing the immunolog...

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Veröffentlicht in:Vaccines (Basel) 2023-03, Vol.11 (3), p.678
Hauptverfasser: D'Alessio, Federico, Lione, Lucia, Salvatori, Erika, Bucci, Federica, Muzi, Alessia, Roscilli, Giuseppe, Compagnone, Mirco, Pinto, Eleonora, Battistuzzi, Gianfranco, Conforti, Antonella, Aurisicchio, Luigi, Palombo, Fabio
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:DNA integrity is a key issue in gene therapy and genetic vaccine approaches based on plasmid DNA. In contrast to messenger RNA that requires a controlled cold chain for efficacy, DNA molecules are considered to be more stable. In this study, we challenged this concept by characterizing the immunological response induced by a plasmid DNA vaccine delivered using electroporation. As a model, we used COVID-eVax, a plasmid DNA-based vaccine that targets the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Increased nicked DNA was produced by using either an accelerated stability protocol or a lyophilization protocol. Surprisingly, the immune response induced in vivo was only minimally affected by the percentage of open circular DNA. This result suggests that plasmid DNA vaccines, such as COVID-eVax that have recently completed a phase I clinical trial, retain their efficacy upon storage at higher temperatures, and this feature may facilitate their use in low-/middle-income countries.
ISSN:2076-393X
2076-393X
DOI:10.3390/vaccines11030678