Herd immunity through mass vaccination is an effective method for preventing infectious diseases. However, the emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants, with their frequent mutations, largely evade the immune response and protection induced by COVID-19 vaccines. Here, we designed messenger RNAs encoding mutant epitopes of the spike protein shared among various COVID-19 variants. These mRNAs were encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles to formulate a vaccine named 'mPANVAX@COVID'. Post-vaccination, this approach elicited effective immunity against multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Delta and Omicron, and demonstrated good safety. This study suggests a novel direction for the design of broadly protective vaccines.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2024.151224 | DOI Listing |
Nat Commun
January 2025
Biostatistics Research Branch, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Neutralizing antibody titer has been a surrogate endpoint for guiding COVID-19 vaccine approval and use, although the pandemic's evolution and the introduction of variant-adapted vaccine boosters raise questions as to this surrogate's contemporary performance. For 985 recipients of an mRNA second bivalent or monovalent booster containing various Spike inserts [Prototype (Ancestral), Beta, Delta, and/or Omicron BA.1 or BA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Med Virol
January 2025
Research Center, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh Second Health Cluster, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
MERS is a respiratory disease caused by MERS-CoV. Multiple outbreaks have been reported, and the virus co-circulates with SARS-CoV-2. The long-term (> 6 years) cellular and humoral immune responses to MERS-CoV and their potential cross-reactivity to SARS-CoV-2 and its variants are unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRespir Res
January 2025
Department of Pediatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA Children's Discovery and Innovation Institute, Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
Background: Many respiratory viruses attack the airway epithelium and cause a wide spectrum of diseases for which we have limited therapies. To date, a few primary human stem cell-based models of the proximal airway have been reported for drug discovery but scaling them up to a higher throughput platform remains a significant challenge. As a result, most of the drug screening assays for respiratory viruses are performed on commercial cell line-based 2D cultures that provide limited translational ability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Med Virol
January 2025
Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
Mathematical models of viral dynamics are crucial in understanding infection trajectories. However, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) viral load data often includes limited sparse observations with significant heterogeneity. This study aims to: (1) understand the impact of patient characteristics in shaping the temporal viral load trajectory and (2) establish a data collection protocol (DCP) to reliably reconstruct individual viral load trajectories.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicrob Biotechnol
January 2025
Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center, Izmir, Turkey.
Low-cost and safe vaccines are needed to fill the vaccine inequity gap for future pandemics. Pichia pastoris is an ideal expression system for recombinant protein production due to its cost-effective and easy-to-scale-up process. Here, we developed a next-generation SARS-CoV2 Omicron BA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!