Zeitschrift für Bioterrorismus und Bioverteidigung

Abstrakt

Safe and Effective Smallpox Vaccine Development Using DNA Vaccines and In vivo Electroporation,Probabilistic risk assessment

Amir S Khan, Kate E Broderick, Jian Yan, Matthew P Morrow and Niranjan Y Sardesai

Few viruses have elicited more fear of its potential as a tool of bioterrorism than smallpox. In the post-9/11
“Amerithrax” environment, the threat of an intentional release of smallpox has led to renewed efforts to develop a safer vaccine, with fewer side effects, that could be administered to the general public. DNA vaccines administered through the use of enhanced delivery using electroporation could provide a platform for delivering a smallpox vaccine. Previously published data have shown that an 8 plasmid combination vaccine consisting of VACV antigens (specifically, A4L, A27L, A33R, A56R, B5R, F9L, H3L, and L1R) delivered to rabbits and nonhuman primates followed by electroporation elicited robust humoral and cell-mediated immune responses. Furthermore, non-human primates were protected from lethal challenge with monkeypox, showing that this vaccine platform is effective. This review summarizes recent data supporting vaccine development using DNA and electroporation to protect the general public in the event of a bioterror incident using smallpox.