The Web-Based DNA Vaccine Database DNAVaxDB and Its Usage for Rational DNA Vaccine Design
A DNA vaccine is a vaccine that uses a mammalian expression vector to express one or more protein antigens and is administered in vivo to induce an adaptive immune response. Since the 1990s, a significant amount of research has been performed on DNA vacci
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Introduction A DNA vaccine, first introduced in the 1990s [1], consists of a DNA plasmid manufactured to encode one or more peptide antigens, is administered in vivo, and has the ability to induce a preventive or protective immune response against a disease or infection. Once in vivo, the encoded protein is expressed and degraded into peptides by antigen presenting cells. These peptides, or epitopes, can either trigger T cells through the antigen presenting cells or induce antibody responses through B cell antigen recognition [2]. DNA vaccines are easy to prepare and store, safe, and cost effective when compared to other types of vaccines, such as live attenuated or killed whole organism vaccines, and subunit vaccines. Additionally, DNA vaccines allow for a focused immune response on a particular antigen and can also induce long-lasting and varied immune responses in vivo. Exhaustive efforts have been taken to research and utilize DNA vaccines. Over 55,000 articles about DNA vaccines and their research have been cataloged in PubMed and/or Google Scholar. Currently four DNA vaccines have been licensed for veterinary uses [3]. There is no currently licensed human DNA vaccine, but several are presently in clinical trials. Research is also underway to better understand the mechanisms underlying DNA vaccination and resulting immunity. As a relatively independent program under the comprehensive VIOLIN vaccine resource (http://www.violinet.org), DNAVaxDB [3] is the first publically available, Web-based database and analysis system for DNA vaccines, DNA vaccine-associated plasmids, and DNA vaccine-associated protective antigens [4]. As with the other recorded vaccines in the VIOLIN database,
Sunil Thomas (ed.), Vaccine Design: Methods and Protocols, Volume 2: Vaccines for Veterinary Diseases, Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 1404, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4939-3389-1_48, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
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Rebecca Racz and Yongqun He
each DNA vaccine in DNAVaxDB is experimentally verified to induce statistically significant protection against a disease in at least one laboratory animal model (ideally in the natural host). These vaccines have been used in a large array of both infectious and non-infectious diseases and conditions. Analysis of this data has shown many patterns in DNA vaccines, plasmids, and antigens. The use of these patterns together with computational analysis can further be used in DNA vaccine design and to better understand the protection mechanism behind DNA vaccines. DNAVaxDB supports research in immunology, vaccinology, and microbiology and is expected to continue to grow and have a significant impact on vaccine development, research and design.
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DNAVaxDB Development
2.1 Manual Curation of DNA Vaccine Data from Peer-Reviewed Articles
Each DNA vaccine stored in DNAVaxDB is typically associated with the following major items: 1. DNA vaccine name. 2. Host animal used as model. 3. Immunization route. 4. Stage of vaccine development (e.g., research, clinical trial, or licensed)
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