Feature Papers of DNA and mRNA Vaccines

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2024 | Viewed by 8994

Special Issue Editor

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of the Section "DNA and mRNA Vaccines", I am glad to announce the Special Issue "Feature Papers of DNA and mRNA Vaccines". This Special Issue covers all relevant topics related to DNA and mRNA vaccines for both infectious and non-infectious diseases, ranging from the rational design to the development and production of preclinical and clinical applications. While human therapeutics is of particular interest, manuscripts on animal therapeutics are also welcome.

In this Special Issue, we will collect articles from top researchers describing new approaches or new cutting-edge developments in the fields of DNA and mRNA vaccines. We welcome submissions of manuscripts from Editorial Board Members and from outstanding scholars invited by the Editorial Board and the Editorial Office.

You are welcome to send short proposals for submissions of feature papers to our Editorial Office (Vaccines@mdpi.com) for evaluation.

Dr. Jorge H. Leitão
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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.

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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11 pages, 2112 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of the Immunological Efficacy of an LNP-mRNA Vaccine Prepared from Varicella Zoster Virus Glycoprotein gE with a Double-Mutated Carboxyl Terminus in Different Untranslated Regions in Mice
by Yunfei Wang, Han Cao, Kangyang Lin, Jingping Hu, Ning Luan and Cunbao Liu
Vaccines 2023, 11(9), 1475; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11091475 - 11 Sep 2023
Viewed by 1373
Abstract
Cell-mediated immunity (CMI) plays a key role in the effectiveness of varicella zoster virus (VZV) vaccines, and mRNA vaccines have an innate advantage in inducing CMI. Glycoprotein E (gE) has been used widely as an antigen for VZV vaccines, and carboxyl-terminal mutations of [...] Read more.
Cell-mediated immunity (CMI) plays a key role in the effectiveness of varicella zoster virus (VZV) vaccines, and mRNA vaccines have an innate advantage in inducing CMI. Glycoprotein E (gE) has been used widely as an antigen for VZV vaccines, and carboxyl-terminal mutations of gE are associated with VZV titer and infectivity. In addition, the untranslated regions (UTRs) of mRNA affect the stability and half-life of mRNA in the cell and are crucial for protein expression and antigenic translational efficiency. In this study, three UTRs were designed and connected to the nucleic acid sequence of gE-M, which is double mutated in the extracellular region of gE. Then, mRNA with different nucleic acids was encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), forming three LNP-mRNA VZV vaccines, named gE-M-Z, gE-M-M, and gE-M-P. The immune response elicited by these vaccines in mice was evaluated at intervals of 4 weeks, and the mice were sacrificed 2 weeks after the final immunization. In the results, the gE-M-P group, which retains the nucleic acid sequence of gE-M and is connected to Pfizer/BioNTech’s BNT162b2 UTRs, induced the strongest humoral immune response and CMI. Because CMI is crucial for protection against VZV and for the design of VZV vaccines, this study provides a feasible strategy for improving the effectiveness and economy of future VZV vaccines. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers of DNA and mRNA Vaccines)
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16 pages, 17134 KiB  
Article
Rapid Identity and Quantity CQA Test for Multivalent mRNA Drug Product Formulations
by Rachel Y. Gao, Christine M. Riley, Evan Toth, Rebecca H. Blair, Megan N. Gerold, Caitlin McCormick, Amber W. Taylor, Tianjing Hu, Kathy L. Rowlen and Erica D. Dawson
Vaccines 2022, 10(10), 1704; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10101704 - 12 Oct 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2376
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted mRNA as a promising platform for vaccines and therapeutics. Many of the analytical tools used to characterize the critical quality attributes of mRNA are inherently singleplex and are not necessarily optimal from a labor and cost perspective. Here, we [...] Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted mRNA as a promising platform for vaccines and therapeutics. Many of the analytical tools used to characterize the critical quality attributes of mRNA are inherently singleplex and are not necessarily optimal from a labor and cost perspective. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of a multiplexed platform (VaxArray) for efficient identity verification and concentration determination for both monovalent and multivalent mRNA formulations. A model system comprising mRNA constructs for influenza hemagglutinin and neuraminidase was used to characterize the analytical performance metrics for a VaxArray mRNA assay. The assay presented herein had a time to result of less than 2 h, required no PCR-based amplification nor extraction of mRNA from lipid nanoparticles, and exhibited high construct specificity that enabled application to the bivalent mixture. The sensitivity for influenza hemagglutinin and neuraminidase mRNA was sub-µg/mL, which is vaccine-relevant, and the average accuracy (%recovery of a check standard) and precision were 104 ± 2% and 9 ± 2%, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers of DNA and mRNA Vaccines)
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20 pages, 5185 KiB  
Article
Impact of DNA Prime/Protein Boost Vaccination against Campylobacter jejuni on Immune Responses and Gut Microbiota in Chickens
by Noémie Gloanec, Daniel Dory, Ségolène Quesne, Véronique Béven, Typhaine Poezevara, Alassane Keita, Marianne Chemaly and Muriel Guyard-Nicodème
Vaccines 2022, 10(6), 981; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10060981 - 20 Jun 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1966
Abstract
Campylobacteriosis is reported to be the leading zoonosis in Europe, and poultry is the main reservoir of Campylobacter. Despite all the efforts made, there is still no efficient vaccine to fight this bacterium directly in poultry. Recent studies have reported interactions between the [...] Read more.
Campylobacteriosis is reported to be the leading zoonosis in Europe, and poultry is the main reservoir of Campylobacter. Despite all the efforts made, there is still no efficient vaccine to fight this bacterium directly in poultry. Recent studies have reported interactions between the chicken immune system and gut microbiota in response to Campylobacter colonisation. The present study was designed to analyse in more depth the immune responses and caecal microbiota following vaccination with a DNA prime/protein boost flagellin-based vaccine that induces some protection in specific-pathogen-free White Leghorn chickens, as shown previously. These data may help to improve future vaccination protocols against Campylobacter in poultry. Here a vaccinated and a placebo group were challenged by C. jejuni at the age of 19 days. A partial reduction in Campylobacter loads was observed in the vaccinated group. This was accompanied by the production of specific systemic and mucosal antibodies. Transient relatively higher levels of Interleukin-10 and antimicrobial peptide avian β-defensin 10 gene expressions were observed in the vaccinated and placebo groups respectively. The analysis of caecal microbiota revealed the vaccination’s impact on its structure and composition. Specifically, levels of operational taxonomic units classified as Ruminococcaceae and Bacillaceae increased on day 40. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers of DNA and mRNA Vaccines)
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Review

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23 pages, 1665 KiB  
Review
Nucleic Acid Vaccines Encoding Proteins and Virus-like Particles for HIV Prevention
by Ferran Tarrés-Freixas, Bonaventura Clotet, Jorge Carrillo and Julià Blanco
Vaccines 2024, 12(3), 298; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines12030298 - 12 Mar 2024
Viewed by 821
Abstract
The development of HIV prophylactic vaccines is facing an impasse, since all phase IIb/III clinical trials were halted in 2023 without demonstrating efficacy. Thus, the field is in need of developing novel immunogens and vaccination strategies that induce broadly neutralising antibodies together with [...] Read more.
The development of HIV prophylactic vaccines is facing an impasse, since all phase IIb/III clinical trials were halted in 2023 without demonstrating efficacy. Thus, the field is in need of developing novel immunogens and vaccination strategies that induce broadly neutralising antibodies together with potent Fc-dependent effector functions, as well as protective cross-reactive CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses. Nucleic acid vaccines, particularly mRNA vaccines, have been one of the major groundbreaking advances in the current decade. Nucleic acid vaccines may help recalibrate the HIV vaccine field towards the use of delivery systems that allow the proper expression of immunogens as a sole antigen (i.e., membrane-bound trimeric envelope glycoproteins) or even to be displayed in a multiantigen platform that will be synthesised by the host. In this review, we will summarise how the multiple HIV vaccine strategies pursued in the last 40 years of HIV research have driven current vaccine development, which are the most relevant immunogens identified so far to induce balanced adaptive immune responses, and how they can benefit from the acceptance of nucleic acid vaccines in the market by reducing the limitations of previous delivery systems. The incorporation of nucleic acid vaccines into the current heterogeneous repertoire of vaccine platforms may represent an invaluable opportunity to reignite the fight against HIV. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers of DNA and mRNA Vaccines)
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23 pages, 3279 KiB  
Review
DNA Vaccines: Their Formulations, Engineering and Delivery
by Michael Kozak and Jiafen Hu
Vaccines 2024, 12(1), 71; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines12010071 - 11 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1655
Abstract
The concept of DNA vaccination was introduced in the early 1990s. Since then, advancements in the augmentation of the immunogenicity of DNA vaccines have brought this technology to the market, especially in veterinary medicine, to prevent many diseases. Along with the successful COVID [...] Read more.
The concept of DNA vaccination was introduced in the early 1990s. Since then, advancements in the augmentation of the immunogenicity of DNA vaccines have brought this technology to the market, especially in veterinary medicine, to prevent many diseases. Along with the successful COVID mRNA vaccines, the first DNA vaccine for human use, the Indian ZyCovD vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, was approved in 2021. In the current review, we first give an overview of the DNA vaccine focusing on the science, including adjuvants and delivery methods. We then cover some of the emerging science in the field of DNA vaccines, notably efforts to optimize delivery systems, better engineer delivery apparatuses, identify optimal delivery sites, personalize cancer immunotherapy through DNA vaccination, enhance adjuvant science through gene adjuvants, enhance off-target and heritable immunity through epigenetic modification, and predict epitopes with bioinformatic approaches. We also discuss the major limitations of DNA vaccines and we aim to address many theoretical concerns. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers of DNA and mRNA Vaccines)
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