Novel vaccines (vaccibodies) against avian influenza and prostate cancer.

We have recently described a novel type of a recombinant vaccine molecule (vaccibody) that can be delivered as protein or naked DNA. In the latter case, transfected muscle cells secrete vaccibody protein that targets antigen presenting cells (APC) for eff icient delivery of antigen and induction of strong immune responses. Influenza vaccines are currently made with egg-based technologies which are cumbersome and exclude patients with egg allergy. There is a call for subunit vaccines that are safer. Vacci bodies seem to be a potent and cost-effective way of rendering subunit vaccines immunogenic, and may therefore represent a safe method to induce protective immunity with a minimal number of injections. The vaccine could be used in the event the current H5 N1 avian virus were to develop the capability to efficiently spread from human to human, resulting in the rapid spread of the disease across the globe. Should such an influenza pandemic emerge, the vaccine may provide early limited protection before a vac cibody tailored to the pandemic strain of the virus could be developed and produced. Several types of therapeutic prostate cancer vaccines are being tested in clinical trials with promising results. Most of these vaccines require complicated production r egiments such as dendritic cell-based vaccines and modified tumor cells. Vaccibodies represent a possible new vaccine that should be safe, highly immunogenic and that can be easily produced in high quantities, either as DNA or protein.