CRITIQUE PAPER (on the New DNA vaccine technology) A dramatic step forward The article is entitled New

DNA vaccine technology and was released last November 2012. Previous efforts were made way back 1995 to attain the improvement for the delivery of the DNA vaccines by bacteria. But only now has such work come to its realization. This study was spearheaded by Roy Curtiss, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology and Wei Kong, a research assistant professor at Arizona State Universitys Biodesign Institute. The groups research results appear in the online Early Edition (EE) of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the week of November 5, 2012. They created a universal platform for delivering highly potent DNA vaccines by employing the recombinant attenuated Salmonella vaccines (RASVs), reengineered bacterium to speed delivery to host cells in the vaccine recipient. Furthermore, the method permits large quantities of DNA vaccine to be produced rapidly at much cheaper cost, freeze-dried and stockpiled to be used when needed. One of the major characteristics of the microorganisms is their ability to generate immune response, but there are many challenges exist as such strains can cause some variable side effects that can cause illness or they can escape into the environment where they have the potential to remain viable. To respond to this problem, the Curtiss team worked on combining safety and effectiveness in orally administered vaccines. The reengineered Salmonella strain can be timed to self-destruct in the body once it has carried out its immunization duties by synthesizing protective antigens. They release their contents when they become unstable and lyse into the cytosol. This is done so as the strain can only thrive on a non-naturally occurring form of sugar. This serves as a cargo vessel to deliver a suite of disease antigens to the recipient. The so-called RASVs are capable of provoking an intense and effective immunity. The team has worked rigorously over the past 5 years to reach this stage. From their experiments done, the vaccine demonstrated complete protection from influenza in mice without any risk to either those vaccinated or the wider public. Roy Curtiss has published more than 250 articles in scholarly journals and has specialized in this field of expertise, which includes a subject on bacterial plasmids and has secured multiple patents. Wei Kong has worked with others on improving the Salmonella vector with rec mutation to stabilize the DNA cargoes. With these credentials, their work is undisputable and guaranteed to have accurate results on this new DNA vaccine technology.

The group was able to demonstrate the effectiveness of this vaccine to a variety of pathogens. This universal DNA vaccine platform represents an important advance as verified by the earlier statements. This is a great advancement for humanity. Today, there is an enormous opportunity to produce vaccines against major viruses including influenza, measles, mumps, HIV, parasites and fungi whereas this was never possible before the development of recombinant attenuated bacterial strains. Currently, new and arising vaccines are taking aim at a wide variety of disease-causing pathogens, targeting them with much improved effectiveness, at lower cost and safety is considered very well. With this quest, the efforts made by Curtiss and Kongs teams certainly made a dramatic step forward.