DNA Vaccine Awaits Approval

A new vaccine to protect horses against West Nile Virus (WNV) has been developed and submitted for USDA review. If approved, it would be the first commercially available DNA vaccine for any mammalian or animal species.

Steve Chu, DVM, PhD, senior vice president, Global Research and Development, Fort Dodge Animal Health, explained the conceptual DNA vaccine to The Horse. The vaccin

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A new vaccine to protect horses against West Nile Virus (WNV) has been developed and submitted for USDA review. If approved, it would be the first commercially available DNA vaccine for any mammalian or animal species.

Steve Chu, DVM, PhD, senior vice president, Global Research and Development, Fort Dodge Animal Health, explained the conceptual DNA vaccine to The Horse. The vaccine has two major components–one is a piece of DNA that codes for two West Nile viral proteins (the membrane protein and the envelope protein), and an adjuvant, which helps stimulate immune response.

In a conventional killed-virus vaccine, “We prepare the viral proteins in the manufacturing plants and put them in the final product as the antigen,” said Chu. “Host animals that have received conventional WNV vaccines will create an immune response to the protein antigens and become protected.”

Chu explained the novel DNA vaccine: “DNA is the genetic code of life. Once it’s given to a host animal in a vaccine, it will be taken up by the host’s cells. The DNA (of the disease you want to protect against) molecules need to get inside an animal’s cells–in this case they could be picked up by the muscle cells and they can then, inside the muscle cells, go through further life cycle changes and be processed, or transcribed, into RNA. That RNA then can be translated into proteins. The proteins can be used to stimulate antibodies and a lymphocyte (white blood cell) immune response,” thus protecting the horse from disease

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Written by:

Stephanie L. Church, Editorial Director, grew up riding and caring for her family’s horses in Central Virginia and received a B.A. in journalism and equestrian studies from Averett University. She joined The Horse in 1999 and has led the editorial team since 2010. A 4-H and Pony Club graduate, she enjoys dressage, eventing, and trail riding with her former graded-stakes-winning Thoroughbred gelding, It Happened Again (“Happy”). Stephanie and Happy are based in Lexington, Kentucky.

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