Gene Gun Delivery Systems for Cancer Vaccine Approaches

Gene-based immunization with transgenic DNA vectors expressing tumor-associated antigens (TAA), cytokines, or chemokines, alone or in combination, provides an attractive approach to increase the cytotoxic T cell immunity against various cancer diseases. With this consideration, particle-mediated or gene gun technology has been developed as a nonviral method for gene transfer into various mammalian tissues. It has been shown to induce both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses in both small and large experimental animals. A broad range of somatic cell types, including primary cultures and established cell lines, has been successfully transfected ex vivo or in vitro by gene gun technology, either as suspension or adherent cultures. Here, we show that protocols and techniques for use in gene gun-mediated transgene delivery system for skin vaccination against melanoma using tumor-associated antigen (TAA) human gp100 and reporter gene assays as experimental systems.