In 1982, Neumann et al. published the use of electroporation in cultured cells, which is one of the important routes of DNA immunization and has been widely used to introduce foreign DNA into cells cultured in vivo.
Plasmid DNA is injected into tissues, organs, or tumors, followed by the delivery of optimal square wave electrical pulses through electrodes. Electrophoretic action permeabilizes the cell membrane, allowing DNA to pass through the putative electric pore.
In general, the current target organs or tissues for electroporation are dominated by skeletal muscle and skin. It has been shown that electroporation can increase the expression of reporter genes by more than 10- to 100-fold compared with simple DNA injection in skeletal muscle. After intramuscular injection of DNA, about 70% of the radiolabeled plasmid is rapidly cleared, but some DNA remains in the body for several hours. Electroporation of the skin can transfect various cell types, such as keratinocytes, monocytes, and fibroblasts. The skin has Langerhans cells and dendritic cells that present antigens and elicit an immune response after inoculation with a DNA immunogen. Electro-gene transfer to the skin provides short-term transgene expression compared to transfer to muscle.
Internal organs are also one of the target organs for electroporation, but they need to be exposed by surgery before electroporation, so there are certain limitations in their application. Current studies have indicated that the liver, kidney, lung, and heart can be the target organs for electroporation. In addition, it has been shown that electroporation can effectively deliver siRNA to corneal epithelial cells.
In addition to its use in the development of monoclonal antibodies, electroporation has a wide range of applications in other fields. For instance, electroporation technology can be utilized to develop DNA vaccines, discover gene therapy for tumor treatment, create methods to treat systemic diseases, treat peripheral arterial disease, wound healing, muscular dystrophy, arthropathy, respiratory diseases, diabetes, etc.
At present, DNA immunization has been widely used in the preparation of monoclonal antibodies and the research and development of DNA vaccines, mainly including gene gun DNA immunization, electroporation DNA immunization, naked DNA immunization, and heterologous immunization. Creative Biolabs is committed to sharing our experience and knowledge to help you learn more about DNA immunization.
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