This is really cool to see. Just to help people with some context, this vaccine is 2 milligrams per shot (which is equal to 2000 micrograms). I am unsure if they use an adjuvant or not (seems like they don't).<p>The reason they need to use so much material is the immune activation doesn't line up with spike protein expression and presentation. This is because the plasmid has to be turned into mRNA by the cell that takes it up. By the time the mRNA is being read to make the protein, the initial immune activation by the DNA itself is already waning.<p>The concomitant signalling (immune activation to trick the body to think it's an actual infection, and detection of the foriegn spike protein at the time and place) is essential for robust immune response against the target. This is why the mRNA vaccines can use 100 micrograms and 30 micrograms (Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, respectively)--the innate immune activation caused by the mRNA itself occurs in at the time and space as antigen (spike protein) expression and presentation.<p>I wish them luck with this, but I don't believe outside of an emergency this technology will be robust enough compared to mRNA, viral-vector, and traditional vaccines.<p>One more thing, they detect plasmid for a month at the injection site (in non-clinical study) and nearly a month in the blood. That is a concern to me, but not a huge concern. (<a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.26.428240v1" rel="nofollow">https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.26.428240v1</a>)