title: Prospects and progress of DNA vaccines for treating hepatitis B.
abstract: The hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a global cause of liver disease. The preventive HBV vaccine has effectively reduced the disease burden. However, an estimated 340 million chronic HBV cases are in need of treatment. Current standard therapy for chronic HBV blocks reverse transcription. As this therapy blocks viral maturation and not viral protein expression, any immune inhibition exerted by these proteins will remain throughout therapy. This may help to explain why these drugs rarely induce off-therapy responses. Albeit some restoration of immune function occurs during therapy, this is clearly insufficient to control replication. Central questions when considering therapeutic DNA vaccination as an addition to blocking virus production are as follows: what does one hope to achieve? What do we think is wrong and how can the vaccination correct this? We here discuss different scenarios with respect to the lack of success of tested DNA vaccines, and suggest strategies for improvement.
authors.affiliation: a Division of Clinical Microbiology, F 68, Department of Laboratory Medicine , Karolinska Institutet at Karolinska University Hospital , Stockholm , Sweden.|b Department of Dental Medicine , Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm , Sweden.
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: a Division of Clinical Microbiology, F 68, Department of Laboratory Medicine , Karolinska Institutet at Karolinska University Hospital , Stockholm , Sweden.
authors.forename: Neetu
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jagya
authors.affiliation: c Targeted Therapeutics, Department of Biomaterials Science and Technology, MIRA Institute for Biomedical Technology and Technical Medicine , University of Twente , Enschede , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ruchi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bansal
authors.affiliation: a Division of Clinical Microbiology, F 68, Department of Laboratory Medicine , Karolinska Institutet at Karolinska University Hospital , Stockholm , Sweden.
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Frelin
authors.affiliation: a Division of Clinical Microbiology, F 68, Department of Laboratory Medicine , Karolinska Institutet at Karolinska University Hospital , Stockholm , Sweden.
authors.forename: Matti
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sällberg
mesh_terms: D017325:Hepatitis B Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000276:immunology*; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D019444:Vaccines, DNA / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D017325:Hepatitis B Vaccines; D019444:Vaccines, DNA
keywords: DNA vaccine; HBV; electroporation; therapy; vaccines