Gene-based vaccines: Recent developments

Gene-based vaccines are under development for a broad variety of applications, ranging from vaccines to immunotherapies for infectious diseases, cancer, autoimmune diseases and allergy. In addition, following the licensing of DNA vaccines for use in fish and horses, and DNA immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer in dogs, several veterinary uses of vaccines have been demonstrated for species ranging from fish and shrimp to cattle and horses. A variety of publications describing preclinical and clinical studies of the technologies used to increase the potency of gene-based vaccines, and research further elucidating the immune mechanisms involved have recently become available. This review discusses the progress and observations described in the recent literature, including a survey of the diseases and approaches that are being targeted with gene-based vaccines.