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Traditional vaccines involve exposing a recipient briefly to an immunizing protein. In contrast, DNA vaccines insert the DNA encoding the immunizing protein into the recipient's cells, which begin producing the antigen on an ongoing basis. DNA vaccines have many virtues in comparison to traditional vaccines, including the induction of a more vigorous cellular immune response. Because cellular immunity is critical to containing active tuberculosis, an international team tried vaccination with DNA encoding the bacterial Hsp65 antigen that had previously been shown to prevent tuberculosis in mice.
In this study, when the DNA vaccination was given to mice already heavily infected with a virulent strain of TB, there was a rapid and remarkable imp…