Nucleic acid vaccines: A taboo broken and prospect for a hepatitis B virus cure  

作　　者：Efthymios P Tsounis Athanasia Mouzaki Christos Triantos 

机构地区：[1]Division of Gastroenterology,Department of Internal Medicine,University of Patras,Patras 26504,Greece [2]Division of Hematology,Department of Internal Medicine,University of Patras,Patras 26504,Greece

出　　处：《World Journal of Gastroenterology》2021年第41期7005-7013,共9页世界胃肠病学杂志（英文版）

摘　　要：Although a prophylactic vaccine is available,hepatitis B virus(HBV)remains a major cause of liver-related morbidity and mortality.Current treatment options are improving clinical outcomes in chronic hepatitis B;however,true functional cure is currently the exception rather than the rule.Nucleic acid vaccines are among the emerging immunotherapies that aim to restore weakened immune function in chronically infected hosts.DNA vaccines in particular have shown promising results in vivo by reducing viral replication,breaking immune tolerance in a sustained manner,or even decimating the intranuclear covalently closed circular DNA reservoir,the hallmark of HBV treatment.Although DNA vaccines encoding surface antigens administered by conventional injection elicit HBVspecific T cell responses in humans,initial clinical trials failed to demonstrate additional therapeutic benefit when administered with nucleos(t)ide analogs.In an attempt to improve vaccine immunogenicity,several techniques have been used,including codon/promoter optimization,coadministration of cytokine adjuvants,plasmids engineered to express multiple HBV epitopes,or combinations with other immunomodulators.DNA vaccine delivery by electroporation is among the most efficient strategies to enhance the production of plasmid-derived antigens to stimulate a potent cellular and humoral anti-HBV response.Preliminary results suggest that DNA vaccination via electroporation efficiently invigorates both arms of adaptive immunity and suppresses serum HBV DNA.In contrast,the study of mRNA-based vaccines is limited to a few in vitro experiments in this area.Further studies are needed to clarify the prospects of nucleic acid vaccines for HBV cure.

关 键 词：Chronic hepatitis B Therapeutic vaccination Nucleic acid vaccines DNA vaccines ELECTROPORATION IMMUNOTHERAPY 

分 类 号：R392-33[医药卫生—免疫学]