title: Electroporation in DNA vaccination protocols against cancer.
abstract: Since conventional therapeutic approaches in cancer are highly invasive they hardly prolong patient survival for more than few months. Having the ability to stimulate both cellular and humoural immune responses, immunisation with naked plasmid DNA encoding tumour-associated antigens or tumour-specific antigens has recently reported a plethora of advantages, and the improvement of vaccine efficacy has emerged as a goal in the development of DNA vaccination as anti-tumour therapy. Nevertheless, because of their poor immunogenicity when administered as unformulated intramuscular injections, plasmid DNA vaccines need to be improved. Recent data suggest that the DNA vaccine efficacy may significantly be increased by electroporation. This review highlights the recent literature that supports electroporation as an effective strategy to improve DNA-based vaccination protocols, investigating the most relevant studies, recently developed for the applications of DNA vaccine electrotransfer against tumours in pre-clinical and clinical studies.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular Pathology and Experimental Oncology, CNR-IFT, Via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Pieranna
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chiarella
authors.forename: Vito Michele
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Fazio
authors.forename: Emanuela
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Signori
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D053672:Electrochemotherapy; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D019444:Vaccines, DNA / Q000008:administration & dosage*
chemical_list: D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D019444:Vaccines, DNA