The development of nucleic acid vaccine marks the arrival of the third vaccine revolution. In 1995, the New York Academy of Sciences held a conference on nucleic acid vaccines, which was called the new era of vaccines and the third revolution of vaccines.

Nucleic acid vaccine, also known as gene vaccine or DNA vaccine, is also called naked nucleic acid vaccine because it does not need carriers and adjuvants for intramuscular injection. By intramuscular injection, the vaccine can obtain a more durable antigen expression in myocytes. The antigen can induce antibody production, T cell proliferation and cytokine release, especially the killing effect of cytotoxic T cells. Specific immune response mediated by cytotoxic T cells plays an important role in anti-tumor, anti-virus and elimination of intracellular parasitic infections. Nucleic acid vaccine has attracted much attention among many vaccines because of its unique advantages.

The unexpected results of Wolf. and Arthur's gene delivery system provided conditions for the discovery of nucleic acid vaccine. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, gene therapy experiments were carried out with nucleic acids expressing gene products. Nude genes without any treatment can express proteins in muscle cells. This product can be expressed in skeletal muscle cells for two months and induce immune response in the body, thus triggering a research upsurge of nucleic acid vaccine.


In the initial animal experiments, there were two encouraging results: the first was that influenza A virus nucleic acid vaccine was injected into mice, which resulted in the production of antibodies and cytotoxic T cells in mice and will take the Vaccine Preclinical Assessment in need. Then the mice were attacked with influenza A, and 100% of the mice in the control group survived in health, while 100% of the mice in the control group died nine days later. Almost at the same time, Fernand. used gene guns and nucleic acids encoding erythrocyte agglutinins, which resulted in protective immune responses in mice. Another important research result is the DNA vaccine of hepatitis B surface antigen. This vaccine can not only induce animals to produce corresponding antibodies, but also, more importantly, can make the HBsAg of transgenic animals negative. This indicates that nucleic acid vaccine can be used for the prevention or treatment of diseases, especially for the development of hepatitis B nucleic acid vaccine approach the medical dusty into vaccine Scale-up Development. This provides a promising direction for the research of hepatitis B vaccine in China at present.


The research progress of nucleic acid vaccine is encouraging, because nucleic acid vaccine has many advantages, especially the dual functions of immune prevention and treatment. Since 1994, the Food and Drug Administration of the United States has successively approved nucleic acid vaccines such as AIDS, influenza, hepatitis B, simple scar, malaria and carcinoembryonic antigen to enter clinical trials. Many vaccine companies in Europe and the United States have invested a lot of manpower and material resources in the development and research of nucleic acid vaccine.