Technological advances to increase immunogenicity of DNA vaccines

The latest clinical data obtained with DNA vaccines against HIV and malaria have shown promise, but it is clear that when DNA vaccines are compared with other vaccine vector delivery systems, there is still room for improvement. Further development is more than possible, based on the wealth of information accumulating on methods and approaches to increase immunogenicity of DNA vaccines. Thus, the goal of this review is to summarize some of the latest technological advances to increase immunogenicity of DNA vaccines administered by the im. and id. routes. By means of examples, the review will be intended to focus only on recent developments reported in the last 2 years and likely to go towards the improvement of mucosal, humoral and cellular immune responses mostly against cancer and infectious disease antigens.