Efforts to protect the human body from serious diseases through vaccination date far back into history. Historical sources tell us that the first attempts at immunization already appeared in ancient China. A true breakthrough in this field — both in terms of the general principle of vaccination and in the fight against the dreaded smallpox — came at the end of the 18th century, when the English physician Edward Jenner laid the foundations of modern vaccinology. Since then, vaccination has undergone rapid development, and it now appears that we are standing at the threshold of a new era.
Following Edward Jenner’s groundbreaking discovery, various types of vaccines targeting specific pathogens gradually began to be developed and introduced into clinical practice. These included live attenuated vaccines (containing a weakened pathogen — bacterium or virus), inactivated vaccines (containing a killed pathogen), toxoid vaccines (containing an inactivated toxin), and subunit vaccines (containing only part of the pathogenic organism, such as a surface protein).
Modern methods of molecular genetics have brought new possibilities to vaccine development by enabling the testing of nucleic acid–based vaccines. Unlike traditional vaccines, which introduce the target antigen directly into the body, these new types use only genetic information in the form of DNA or mRNA. The antigen required to elicit an immune response is then synthesized directly within the body based on this genetic information.
Today, the best-known examples among the general public are undoubtedly mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. Although the development of this type of vaccine had been part of research efforts for many years, the outbreak of the global pandemic and the urgent need for rapid production of an effective vaccine significantly accelerated all activities related to mRNA vaccines. Given that this approach has proven to be an effective tool in the fight against infectious diseases, a wide range of mRNA vaccines is currently in various stages of clinical testing.
The group of nucleic acid–based vaccines also includes the above-mentioned DNA vaccines. Many research teams have been working on their development for quite some time; however, to date, only one vaccine based on this principle has been approved for human use. This is again a COVID-19 vaccine, approved in India under an Emergency Use Authorization.
In veterinary medicine, however, DNA vaccines have been used since 2005 — for example, in salmon to prevent disease caused by infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus, or in horses to protect against West Nile fever. Worldwide, there are six approved veterinary DNA vaccines.
Another type of vaccine that is gradually entering the global market includes vaccines using viral vectors. In this case, a selected vector virus is modified using genetic engineering techniques so that it produces heterologous antigens of the pathogen against which the immune response is intended to be directed.
For example, in 2019 a vaccine against Zaire ebolavirus was approved in which a gene encoding the surface glycoprotein of the Zaire Ebola virus was inserted into a suitably modified vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV). The same principle underlies some currently available vaccines against COVID-19, Japanese encephalitis, and dengue fever.
New approaches to vaccine design have pushed the boundaries of modern immunization. Recent years have confirmed the importance of innovative vaccination technologies that have enabled the rapid development of effective products. These new types of vaccines bring hope for the prevention of diseases that have so far been difficult to target using classical vaccination approaches.
Editorial Team, Medscope.pro
Sources:
1. Giersing B., Mo A. X., Hwang A. et al. Meeting summary: Global vaccine and immunization research forum, 2023. Vaccine 2025; 6 (46): 126686, doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.126686. 2. Pan M., Cao W., Zhai J. et al. mRNA-based vaccines and therapies – a revolutionary approach for conquering fast-spreading infections and other clinical applications: a review. Int J Biol Macromol 2025; 309 (4): 143134, doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.143134. 3. McCann N., O’Connor D., Lambe T., Pollard A. J. Viral vector vaccines. Curr Opin Immunol 2022; 77 : 102210, doi: 10.1016/j.coi.2022.102210. 4. Pagliari S., Dema B., Sanchez-Martinez A. et al. DNA vaccines: History, molecular mechanisms and future perspectives. J Mol Biol 2023; 435 (23): 168297, doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2023.168297. 5. Barton C. Looking beyond mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines to innovative therapeutics. PharmTech, June 24, 2025. Available at: www.pharmtech.com/view/looking-beyond-mrna-based-covid-19-vaccines-to-innovative-therapeutics
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