Development of a Recombinant RBD Subunit Vaccine for SARS-CoV-2
Yi-Sheng Sun,
Jing-Jing Zhou,
Han-Ping Zhu,
Fang Xu,
Wen-Bin Zhao,
Hang-Jing Lu,
Zhen Wang,
Shu-Qing Chen,
Ping-Ping Yao,
Jian-Min Jiang,
Zhan Zhou
Affiliations
Yi-Sheng Sun
Key Lab of Vaccine, Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou 310015, China
Jing-Jing Zhou
Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Anti-Cancer Drug Research, Institute of Drug Metabolism and Pharmaceutical Analysis, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Han-Ping Zhu
Key Lab of Vaccine, Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou 310015, China
Fang Xu
Key Lab of Vaccine, Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou 310015, China
Wen-Bin Zhao
Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Anti-Cancer Drug Research, Institute of Drug Metabolism and Pharmaceutical Analysis, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Hang-Jing Lu
Key Lab of Vaccine, Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou 310015, China
Zhen Wang
Key Lab of Vaccine, Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou 310015, China
Shu-Qing Chen
Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Anti-Cancer Drug Research, Institute of Drug Metabolism and Pharmaceutical Analysis, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Ping-Ping Yao
Key Lab of Vaccine, Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou 310015, China
Jian-Min Jiang
Key Lab of Vaccine, Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou 310015, China
Zhan Zhou
Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Anti-Cancer Drug Research, Institute of Drug Metabolism and Pharmaceutical Analysis, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
The novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) pandemic is a great threat to human society and now is still spreading. Although several vaccines have been authorized for emergency use, only one recombinant subunit vaccine has been permitted for widespread use. More subunit vaccines for COVID-19 should be developed in the future. The receptor binding domain (RBD), located at the S protein of SARS-CoV-2, contains most of the neutralizing epitopes. However, the immunogenicity of RBD monomers is not strong enough. In this study, we fused the RBD-monomer with a modified Fc fragment of human IgG1 to form an RBD-Fc fusion protein. The recombinant vaccine candidate based on the RBD-Fc protein could induce high levels of IgG and neutralizing antibody in mice, and these could last for at least three months. The secretion of IFN-γ, IL-2 and IL-10 in the RBD-stimulated splenocytes of immunized mice also increased significantly. Our results first showed that the RBD-Fc vaccine could induce both humoral and cellular immune responses and might be an optional strategy to control COVID-19.
