Evolution of electroporated DNA vaccines.
Vaccines have evolved for hundreds of years, but all utilize the premise that safely pre-exposing the host to some component of a pathogen allows for enhanced immune recognition, and potential protection from disease, upon encountering the pathogen at a later date. Early vaccination strategies used inactivated or attenuated vaccines, many of which contained toxins and other components that resulted in reactogenicity or risk of reversion to virulence. DNA vaccines supplant many of the issues associated with inactivated or attenuated vaccines, but these vaccines tend to provide weak immunological responses, particularly in primates. DNA Electroporation may prove to be the "missing link" in the evolution of DNA vaccines allowing for enhanced immune responses from DNA vaccination in humans thereby resulting in protection from disease post-pathogen exposure.