Academic Journal
Engineered protein subunit COVID19 vaccine is as immunogenic as nanoparticles in mouse and hamster models
| Title: | Engineered protein subunit COVID19 vaccine is as immunogenic as nanoparticles in mouse and hamster models |
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| Authors: | Melissa M. Matthews, Tae Gyun Kim, Keon Young Kim, Vladimir Meshcheryakov, Higor Alves Iha, Miho Tamai, Daiki Sasaki, Paola Laurino, Saacnicteh Toledo-Patiño, Mary Collins, Tzung-Yang Hsieh, Satoshi Shibata, Noriko Shibata, Fumiko Obata, Jun Fujii, Toshihiro Ito, Hiroshi Ito, Hiroki Ishikawa, Matthias Wolf |
| Source: | Scientific Reports, Vol 14, Iss 1, Pp 1-14 (2024) |
| Publisher Information: | Nature Portfolio, 2024. |
| Publication Year: | 2024 |
| Collection: | LCC:Medicine LCC:Science |
| Subject Terms: | Protein subunit vaccine, Protein engineering, Scaffold, Adjuvant, Nanoparticle, SARS-CoV-2 (CoV-2) spike protein, Medicine, Science |
| More Details: | Abstract Initial studies on the immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 (CoV-2) S glycoprotein (“spike”) as a protein subunit vaccine suggested sub-optimal efficacy in mammals. Although protein engineering efforts have produced CoV-2 spike protein sequences with greatly improved immunogenicity, additional strategies for improving the immunogenicity of CoV-2 protein subunit vaccines are scaffolding and the use of adjuvants. Comparisons of the effectiveness of engineered protein-only and engineered protein-nanoparticles vaccines have been rare. To explore this knowledge gap, we inoculated mice with two doses of either sequence-optimized trimeric spike protein or one of several sequence-optimized spike nanoparticles. We measured their immune response up to two months after the first dose. We also measured the immune response and protection against live virus in hamsters inoculated with either sequence-optimized trimeric spike protein or a liposome-based sequence-optimized spike nanoparticle. We found that in the presence of adjuvant, the antibody and neutralization titers elicited by spike-nanoparticles were not significantly greater than those elicited by spike-only in mice, even at doses as low as 0.1 µg/animal. Hamsters vaccinated with spike-only or spike-nanoparticles were equally protected from live virus one month after their first inoculation. These results suggest that sequence-optimized protein subunit vaccines in the form of individual prefusion-stabilized trimers can be as effective in improving immunogenicity as scaffolded forms. |
| Document Type: | article |
| File Description: | electronic resource |
| Language: | English |
| ISSN: | 2045-2322 |
| Relation: | https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322 |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-024-76377-y |
| Access URL: | https://doaj.org/article/0177c76b3d834a7fb816ba77c81efaed |
| Accession Number: | edsdoj.0177c76b3d834a7fb816ba77c81efaed |
| Database: | Directory of Open Access Journals |
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| ISSN: | 20452322 |
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| DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-024-76377-y |
| Published in: | Scientific Reports |
| Language: | English |