npj Vaccines (Aug 2021)

Neutralization of MERS coronavirus through a scalable nanoparticle vaccine

  • Mona O. Mohsen,
  • Dominik Rothen,
  • Ina Balke,
  • Byron Martina,
  • Vilija Zeltina,
  • Varghese Inchakalody,
  • Zahra Gharailoo,
  • Gheyath Nasrallah,
  • Said Dermime,
  • Kaspars Tars,
  • Monique Vogel,
  • Andris Zeltins,
  • Martin F. Bachmann

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-021-00365-w
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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Abstract MERS-CoV continues to cause human outbreaks, so far in 27 countries worldwide following the first registered epidemic in Saudi Arabia in 2012. In this study, we produced a nanovaccine based on virus-like particles (VLPs). VLPs are safe vaccine platforms as they lack any replication-competent genetic material, and are used since many years against hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis E virus (HEV) and human papilloma virus (HPV). In order to produce a vaccine that is readily scalable, we genetically fused the receptor-binding motif (RBM) of MERS-CoV spike protein into the surface of cucumber-mosaic virus VLPs. The employed CuMVTT-VLPs represent a new immunologically optimized vaccine platform incorporating a universal T cell epitope derived from tetanus toxin (TT). The resultant vaccine candidate (mCuMVTT-MERS) is a mosaic particle and consists of unmodified wild type monomers and genetically modified monomers displaying RBM, co-assembling within E. coli upon expression. mCuMVTT-MERS vaccine is self-adjuvanted with ssRNA, a TLR7/8 ligand which is spontaneously packaged during the bacterial expression process. The developed vaccine candidate induced high anti-RBD and anti-spike antibodies in a murine model, showing high binding avidity and an ability to completely neutralize MERS-CoV/EMC/2012 isolate, demonstrating the protective potential of the vaccine candidate for dromedaries and humans.