1. Immunogenic Comparison of Nucleic Acid-Based Vaccines Administered by Pyro-Drive Jet Injector.
- Author
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Tai JA, Nishikawa T, Hayashi H, Kuan YD, Yamashita K, and Nakagami H
- Abstract
mRNA vaccines were successfully developed and approved for emergency use to fight coronavirus disease 2019. However, the effect of DNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 is considerably lower than that of mRNA vaccines. A pyro-drive jet injector (PJI) efficiently delivers plasmid DNA intradermally into animal models. Here, we compared the immunogenic potential of DNA and mRNA vaccines in mice using the same platform. PJI was used to deliver naked mRNA and pDNA and their efficacy in inducing antigen expression and immune responses was assessed. Our results showed that PJI efficiently delivered mRNA into the skin, and a smaller effective dose than that of pDNA injection was required to achieve similar levels of antigen expression. The PJI-delivered CpG-free pDNA vaccine efficiently induced antigen-specific antibody production and a cell-mediated IFN-γ response compared to the mRNA vaccine, as well as the upregulation of inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, IFN-γ, and IL-1β) in the skin and lymph nodes. However, the intradermal mRNA vaccine was significantly less immunogenic than the standard intramuscular mRNA-lipid nanoparticle vaccine, despite equivalent mRNA dosages. Improvements in lipid nanoparticle and mRNA technology have revolutionized mRNA vaccines, and DNA vaccines can be similarly modified for higher clinical efficacy., Competing Interests: The Department of Health Development and Medicine is an endowed department in the Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University supported by AnGes Inc., Daicel Corporation, and FunPep Co. The Department of Device Application for Molecular Therapeutics is a joint research department between Osaka University and Daicel Corporation (Japan) based in the Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University. The funders provided support in the form of salaries for the authors, but had no role in the design of the study, analyses, decision to publish the results, and in the writing of the manuscript. The authors declare no other conflicts of interest.
- Published
- 2024
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