Cell Discovery (Feb 2022)
CoVac501, a self-adjuvanting peptide vaccine conjugated with TLR7 agonists, against SARS-CoV-2 induces protective immunity
- Yiru Long,
- Jianhua Sun,
- Tian-Zhang Song,
- Tingting Liu,
- Feng Tang,
- Xinxin Zhang,
- Longfei Ding,
- Yunqiu Miao,
- Weiliang Zhu,
- Xiaoyan Pan,
- Qi An,
- Mian Qin,
- Xiankun Tong,
- Xionghua Peng,
- Pan Yu,
- Peng Zhu,
- Jianqing Xu,
- Xiaoyan Zhang,
- Yachun Zhang,
- Datao Liu,
- Ben Chen,
- Huilin Chen,
- Leike Zhang,
- Gengfu Xiao,
- Jianping Zuo,
- Wei Tang,
- Ji Zhou,
- Heng Li,
- Zhijian Xu,
- Hong-Yi Zheng,
- Xin-Yan Long,
- Qiuping Qin,
- Yong Gan,
- Jin Ren,
- Wei Huang,
- Yong-Tang Zheng,
- Guangyi Jin,
- Likun Gong
Affiliations
- Yiru Long
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Jianhua Sun
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Tian-Zhang Song
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Tingting Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Feng Tang
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Xinxin Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Longfei Ding
- Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center & Institutes of Biomedical Sciences
- Yunqiu Miao
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Weiliang Zhu
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Xiaoyan Pan
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Qi An
- Shanghai King-Cell Biotechnology Co., Ltd
- Mian Qin
- Zhongshan Institute for Drug Discovery, Institutes of Drug Discovery and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Xiankun Tong
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Xionghua Peng
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Pan Yu
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Peng Zhu
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Jianqing Xu
- Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center & Institutes of Biomedical Sciences
- Xiaoyan Zhang
- Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center & Institutes of Biomedical Sciences
- Yachun Zhang
- Shanghai King-Cell Biotechnology Co., Ltd
- Datao Liu
- Mabwell (Shanghai) Bioscience Co., Ltd
- Ben Chen
- Mabwell (Shanghai) Bioscience Co., Ltd
- Huilin Chen
- Mabwell (Shanghai) Bioscience Co., Ltd
- Leike Zhang
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Gengfu Xiao
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Jianping Zuo
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Wei Tang
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Ji Zhou
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Shenzhen University Health Science Center, Shenzhen University
- Heng Li
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Zhijian Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Hong-Yi Zheng
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Xin-Yan Long
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Qiuping Qin
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Yong Gan
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Jin Ren
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Wei Huang
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Yong-Tang Zheng
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Guangyi Jin
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Shenzhen University Health Science Center, Shenzhen University
- Likun Gong
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41421-021-00370-2
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 8,
no. 1
pp. 1 – 16
Abstract
Abstract Safe, effective, and economical vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are needed to achieve adequate herd immunity and end the pandemic. We constructed a novel SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, CoVac501, which is a self-adjuvanting peptide vaccine conjugated with Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) agonists. The vaccine contains immunodominant peptides screened from the receptor-binding domain (RBD) and is fully chemically synthesized. It has been formulated in an optimized nanoemulsion formulation and is stable at 40 °C for 1 month. In non-human primates (NHPs), CoVac501 elicited high and persistent titers of protective neutralizing antibodies against multiple RBD mutations, SARS-CoV-2 original strain, and variants (B.1.1.7 and B.1.617.2). Specific peptides booster immunization against the B.1.351 variant has also been shown to be effective in improving protection against B.1.351. Meanwhile, CoVac501 elicited the increase of memory T cells, antigen-specific CD8+ T-cell responses, and Th1-biased CD4+ T-cell immune responses in NHPs. Notably, at an extremely high SARS-CoV-2 challenge dose of 1 × 107 TCID50, CoVac501 provided near-complete protection for the upper and lower respiratory tracts of cynomolgus macaques.
