Non-invasive gene electrotransfer in skin.

The skin is considered as well suited for gene therapy and vaccination. DNA vaccines elicit both broad humoral and cellular immune responses when injected in the skin. Physical and chemical methods are needed to boost the expression. Gene electrotransfer (GET) is one of the most effective approaches. This step by step protocol describes the procedures to get an efficient GET targeted to the skin by using easy-to-use non-invasive electrodes after intradermal plasmid injection (ID GET). A specific pulse sequence is reported. Expression is observed by in vivo fluorescence imaging during more than 2 weeks as the plasmid was coding for tdtomato. The protocol is efficient for the transient expression of clinical proteins.