Division of Veterinary Biotechnology, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly-243122, Uttar Pradesh.
Abstracts of the papers presented at the 16th Annual Convention and International Symposium of Indian Virological Society on “Management of Vector-Borne Viruses” at International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru-502324, Hyderabad, India, February 7–10, 2006.
Nucleic acid vaccines also called as DNA vaccines have emerged as a potential tool for prophylaxis of diseases in animals and man. The initial observation that DNA could induce immune response opened the new vistas in vaccine development. The strategy behind it is that the gene coding for the immunogenic and protective protein is cloned in an Eukaryotic expression vector in right orientation and the resultant recombinant plasmid DNA is used as vaccine. This plasmid DNA expresses the protein, which in turn acts as antigen and induces full spectrum of immunological responses. Such a plasmid vector encoding influenza virus derived gene was found to induce immunological responses in mice. Later, rabies DNA vaccine was developed by Ertl and her team in USA. The work done in India under NATP project Veterinary Vaccine Technology yielded the development of DNA vaccines against rabies, canine parvovirus, infectious bursal disease and fowl adenovirus 4. These vaccines were found to be safe and potent and passed the required quality control parameters.The group of Dr Padmanabhan at IIS Bangalore has developed a rabies DNA vaccine which is effective when given along with the cell culture rabies vaccine. Work on developing DNA vaccines against canine distemper, canine adenovirus, Newcastle disease is underway in our laboratory. Since DNA vaccines are safe, easy to produce on large scale a, do not require cold chain and produce full spectrum of immunological responses, these are the vaccine of choice in Indian conditions.
