Autoimmune inflammatory reactions triggered by genetic vaccines

Genetic vaccines are a novel approach to immunization and immunotherapy in which, rather than a live or inactivated infectious agent, genetic material encoding proteins of the pathogen are delivered to the host’s cells.

During the immunization process, the cells that synthesize the non-self proteins are inevitably perceived as a threat by the host’s immune system and attacked, causing an autoinflammatory reaction in the involved tissue.

Therefore, the biodistribution of the vaccine-derived genetic material is a crucial aspect that should be finely addressed during the development of this type of vaccines.

Such, novel platforms, based on the mRNA or the adenoviral vector technologies, have been widely employed against different pathogenic/viral agents. For example, vaccines against COVID-19, in the effort to provide immunization against SARS-CoV-2. However, several sources of immuno-histopathological evidence demonstrate that the genetic vaccines against COVID-19 can display a wide distribution within the body.

Why it is important: The off-target distribution of the vaccine-derived genetic material and the resulting autoinflammatory reactions is a fundamental topic that must be explored thoroughly. In fact, since the human body is not strictly compartmentalized, this is an issue of serious concern for every genetic vaccine, current or to be developed in the future, which induces human cells to synthesize non-self antigens. Indeed, in certain tissues (like those that have undergone terminal differentiation) the loss of cells causes irreparable damage that may have a fatal outcome.


This Article Collection would aims to deeper investigate the issue of the autoimmune reactions triggered by the off-target distribution of genetic vaccines, trying to gather information related to:

- The sites of accumulation of the vaccine-derived genetic material and of synthesis of the encoded protein
- The methods for their detection and study within tissues
- The consequences for human health possible solutions to mitigate the derived damage
- Potential techniques for the development of safer vaccines that prevent the genetic material from spreading unintentionally beyond the injection site.

In this regard, different article types will be considered for publication, including Research Articles, Reviews, Brief Reports and Methods.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Conceptual Analysis
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Conceptual Analysis
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Genetic Vaccines, COVID autoimmunity, autoinflammatory reactions to vaccines, non-self antigens, vaccine-derived genetic material, mRNA vaccines, adenoviral vector, off-target distribution

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.