DNA vakcine za zdravljenje raka

DNA vaccination has emerged as a promising immunotherapeutic approach against cancer due to its simplicity, stability, and safety. DNA vaccines for cancer immunotherapy are designed to deliver one or several genes encoding tumor antigens, thereby eliciting an immune response against antigens that play a central role in tumor initiation, progression or metastasis. Despite all advantages, DNA vaccines face challenges in inducing potent antigen-specific immune response in humans, which limits the successful translation from preclinical models to the clinic. Different strategies to enhance immunogenicity of DNA vaccines against tumor antigens are used, for example optimization of plasmid structure, search for new tumor antigens, development of new delivery systems and utilization of molecular adjuvants and immunomodulatory signals. These very promising approaches are employed in numerous clinical trials and hold promise for increasing the immunogenicity of cancer DNA vaccines, enhancing cancer eradication and contributing to easier translation of DNA vaccination into human clinical use.DNA vakcine predstavljajo obetaven pristop imunoterapije raka, predvsem zaradi njihove enostavnosti, stabilnosti in varnosti. DNA vakcine temeljijo na vnosu plazmidne DNA z zapisom za enega ali več tumorskih antigenov, udeleženih v nastanku, napredovanju ali zasevanju rakavih celic. Z vnosom DNA vakcine spodbudimo imunski odziv usmerjen proti tumorskemu antigenu, kar potencialno vodi do uničenja rakavih celic. Kljub številnim prednostim DNA vakcin pred klasičnimi vakcinami njihovo uporabo v humani kliniki omejuje prešibak antigen-specifični imunski odziv. Za izboljšanje imunogenosti DNA vakcin se razvoj osredotoča na optimizacijo sestave plazmidne DNA, raziskovanje novih tumorskih antigenov, razvoj novih dostavnih sistemov in sočasna uporaba adjuvantnih in imunomodulatornih molekul. Tovrstni pristopi so del številnih kliničnih raziskav na področju imunoterapije raka in predstavljajo korak bližje k izboljšanju imunogenosti DNA vakcin, učinkovitejšemu uničenju rakavih celic in lažjemu prenosu DNA vakcinacije v humano klinično prakso