Researchers at the laboratory of Ralph Steinman (Henry G. Kunkel professor at Rockefeller University) have used dendritic cells, the cells that directly start immune responses against disease, to make DNA vaccines more effective.
Godwin Nchinda and colleagues developed a DNA vaccine that steers HIV proteins to dendritic cells. Current DNA vaccines need high and repeated doses to produce an immune response, but when the DNA vaccine was targeted at dendritic cells in mice, a single dose gave a more effective vaccine.
"We reduced the dose of DNA needed to immunise a mouse by 100 times," Steinman says. "This will help the search for HIV vaccines, especially if it is combined with other vaccines."
Ralph Steinman, who discovered dendritic cells, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2011.
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