Salivary gland genetic vaccination: a scalable technology for promoting distal mucosal immunity and heightened systemic immune responses.

Use of plasmid DNA for vaccination has been demonstrated quite successfully in small rodents. However, some of the many challenges of DNA vaccine development are the relatively low performance obtained in larger animals and a generally weak mucosal immune response. Vaccination through salivary gland (SG) cannulation and delivery of aqueous solutions of DNA is one potential solution. The scalability of SG DNA vaccination was tested in multiple animal models; antigen specific titers above 10,000 were demonstrated in dogs and rats. Immune responses were also present at a variety of mucosal sites. In conclusion, our data demonstrate that DNA vaccination to the SG presents a unique and advantageous method for eliciting systemic and mucosal immune responses.