Volume 66 Number 2 March 1999	back to contents

DNA Vaccines for Prophylactic or Therapeutic Immunization Against Hepatitis B Virus	84 - 90
Heather L. Davis, PH.D.
Address correspondence to Heather L. Davis, Ph.D., Principal Investigator, Loeb Health Research Institute at the Ottawa Hospital, 725 Parkdale Avenue, Ottawa K1Y 4E9 Canada. Professor, School of Rehabilitation, Faculty of Health Sciences, and Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.

ABSTRACT
DNA vaccines, with which the antigen is synthesized in vivo after direct introduction of its encoding sequences, offer a unique method of immunization that may overcome many of the deficits of traditional antigen-based vaccines. By virtue of the sustained in vivo antigen synthesis and the comprised stimulatory CpG motifs, plasmid DNA vaccines appear to induce strong and long-lasting humoral (antibodies) and cell-mediated (T-help, other cytokine functions and cytotoxic T-cells) immune responses. In animal models, DNA vaccines against hepatitis B virus (HBV) give humoral and cell-mediated immunity superior to that of the current traditional antigen-based vaccines, indicating the possibility of a more effective prophylactic vaccine against HBV. Furthermore, DNA vaccines can overcome tolerance to and expression of HBV proteins in a transgenic mouse model of the HBV chronic carrier, opening up the possibility of an effective therapeutic DNA vaccine to treat chronic carriers of HBV.

KEY WORDS
DNA vaccine, hepatitis B, immunotherapy, hepatitis B antibodies, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte

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