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First COVID-19 DNA vaccine approved, others in hot pursuit
India’s approval of a nucleic acid vaccine hints at a solution for low-income nations—if the limitations of current delivery technology can be overcome.
The Emergency Use Authorization of a DNA-based COVID-19 vaccine by India’s regulator is a milestone for a nucleic acid technology that has been largely overlooked during the pandemic. Although the approval of ZyCoV-D from Indian pharma Zydus Cadila represents a historic first for DNA-based vaccines, peer-reviewed data describing the safety and efficacy of the spike-protein-encoding vaccine have yet to be published. If DNA vaccines can overcome historic inefficiencies of delivery to antigen-presenting cells (APCs) and concerns can be allayed as to potential genotoxicity risks that could arise from chromosomal integration, their high stability, durability of response (including enhanced T-cell immunity) and ease of manufacture could make them a valuable alternative to mRNA, adenoviral vector and recombinant protein vaccine technologies. With several other DNA vaccines for COVID-19 in the pipeline (Table 1), this modality may ultimately offer a new tool for global immunization efforts in low-income countries.
