title: Prophylactic and therapeutic DNA vaccines against Chagas disease.
abstract: Chagas disease is a zoonosis caused by Trypanosoma cruzi in which the most affected organ is the heart. Conventional chemotherapy has a very low effectiveness; despite recent efforts, there is currently no better or more effective treatment available. DNA vaccines provide a new alternative for both prevention and treatment of a variety of infectious disorders, including Chagas disease. Recombinant DNA technology has allowed some vaccines to be developed using recombinant proteins or virus-like particles capable of inducing both a humoral and cellular specific immune response. This type of immunization has been successfully used in preclinical studies and there are diverse models for viral, bacterial and/or parasitic diseases, allergies, tumors and other diseases. Therefore, several research groups have been given the task of designing a DNA vaccine against experimental infection with T. cruzi. In this review we explain what DNA vaccines are and the most recent studies that have been done to develop them with prophylactic or therapeutic purposes against Chagas disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Proteomics. Instituto Nacional de Cardiología "Ignacio Chávez", Juan Badiano No. 1, Col. Sección XVI, Tlalpan, C.P. 14080, Mexico City, Mexico. mini_arce@yahoo.com.mx.
authors.forename: Minerva
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arce-Fonseca
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Proteomics. Instituto Nacional de Cardiología "Ignacio Chávez", Juan Badiano No. 1, Col. Sección XVI, Tlalpan, C.P. 14080, Mexico City, Mexico. marthar8@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rios-Castro
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Proteomics. Instituto Nacional de Cardiología "Ignacio Chávez", Juan Badiano No. 1, Col. Sección XVI, Tlalpan, C.P. 14080, Mexico City, Mexico. chivy73@yahoo.com.mx.
authors.forename: Silvia del Carmen
authors.initials: Sdel C
authors.lastname: Carrillo-Sánchez
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Proteomics. Instituto Nacional de Cardiología "Ignacio Chávez", Juan Badiano No. 1, Col. Sección XVI, Tlalpan, C.P. 14080, Mexico City, Mexico. dikla13@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martínez-Cruz
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Proteomics. Instituto Nacional de Cardiología "Ignacio Chávez", Juan Badiano No. 1, Col. Sección XVI, Tlalpan, C.P. 14080, Mexico City, Mexico. rm.olivia@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Olivia
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Morales
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000628:therapy*; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D016052:Protozoan Vaccines / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014611:Vaccination / Q000379:methods; D019444:Vaccines, DNA / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D016052:Protozoan Vaccines; D019444:Vaccines, DNA