Nucleic Acid Vaccines use genetic material (DNA/RNA) from a viral protein that induces an immune response. The nucleic acid is inserted into human cells, which create copies of the virus protein. For many COVID-19 vaccines in development, the nucleic acid codes for the virus's spike protein. Both DNA and RNA vaccines trigger CD8+ cytotoxic T cell response to eradicate virus, in addition to antibody and CD4+ T cell responses. However, because of their remarkable risk of failure, not a single nucleic acid vaccine has ever been licensed.

Some types of nucleic acid vaccines include (image):