Plasmid DNA Vaccine Safe And Well-Tolerated In Animal Models.(Brief Article)

2001 AUG 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - A DNA vaccine for malaria has been found safe in mice and rabbits, and its adjuvant was readily detected in muscle following muscular administration, according to a report in Gene Therapy.

The MuStDO 5 is a plasmid DNA vaccine comprising five plasmid DNAs encoding five proteins from Plasmodium falciparum and one plasmid DNA encoding human granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), said S.E. Parker and associates at Vical Inc., San Diego, CA.

In separate experiments, they evaluated the safety and long-term expression of vaccine components in mice and rabbits. The researchers were unable to detect GM-CSF in the serum of mice receiving either intramuscular or combined intramuscular/intradermal administration of the vaccine but readily detected it in the muscle following intramuscular administration.

Polymerase chain reaction detected MuStDO 5 plasmid DNA initially in highly vascularized tissues of mice, and later detected plasmid DNA primarily at injection sites, reported Parker and colleagues (Safety of a GM-CSF adjuvant-plasmid DNA malaria vaccine, Gene Ther, ...