title: Nucleic acid vaccination strategies against infectious diseases.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Gene vaccines are an interesting and emerging alternative for the prevention of infectious diseases, as well as in the treatment of other pathologies including cancer, allergies, autoimmune diseases, or even drug dependencies. When applied to the target organism, these vaccines induce the expression of encoded antigens and elicit the corresponding immune response, with the potential ability of being able to induce antibody-, helper T cell-, and cytotoxic T cell-mediated immune responses.
  
  
  METHODS
  Special attention is paid to the variety of adjuvants that may be co-administered to enhance and/or to modulate immune responses, and to the methods of delivery. Finally, this article reviews the efficacy data of gene vaccines against infectious diseases released from current clinical trials.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Taken together, this approach will have a major impact on future strategies for the prevention of infectious diseases. Better-designed nucleic acid constructs, novel delivery technologies, as well as the clarification of the mechanisms for antigen presentation will improve the potential applications of this vaccination strategy against microbial pathogens.
authors.affiliation: a 1 Jagiellonian University Medical College, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Biochemistry , Medyczna 9, PL 30-688 Cracow, Poland.
authors.forename: Małgorzata Anna
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Marć
authors.affiliation: b 2 Jagiellonian University Medical College, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Technology and Biotechnology of Drugs , Medyczna 9, PL 30-688 Cracow, Poland.
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Domínguez-Álvarez
authors.affiliation: c 3 University of Navarra, Institute of Tropical Health (ISTUN), Department of Microbiology and Parasitology , Irunlarrea 1, 31008 Pamplona, Spain cgamazo@unav.es.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gamazo
mesh_terms: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; D000818:Animals; D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000379:methods*; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D006801:Humans; D006377:T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer / Q000276:immunology; D014611:Vaccination; D019444:Vaccines, DNA / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; D019444:Vaccines, DNA
keywords: Clinical trial; DNA-vaccine; RNA-vaccine; gene-vaccine; immunoadjuvant