npj Vaccines (Sep 2024)

Computationally designed Spike antigens induce neutralising responses against the breadth of SARS-COV-2 variants

  • Sneha Vishwanath,
  • George William Carnell,
  • Martina Billmeier,
  • Luis Ohlendorf,
  • Patrick Neckermann,
  • Benedikt Asbach,
  • Charlotte George,
  • Maria Suau Sans,
  • Andrew Chan,
  • Joey Olivier,
  • Angalee Nadesalingam,
  • Sebastian Einhauser,
  • Nigel Temperton,
  • Diego Cantoni,
  • Joe Grove,
  • Ingo Jordan,
  • Volker Sandig,
  • Paul Tonks,
  • Johannes Geiger,
  • Christian Dohmen,
  • Verena Mummert,
  • Anne Rosalind Samuel,
  • Christian Plank,
  • Rebecca Kinsley,
  • Ralf Wagner,
  • Jonathan Luke Heeney

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-024-00950-9
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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Abstract Updates of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are required to generate immunity in the population against constantly evolving SARS-CoV-2 variants of concerns (VOCs). Here we describe three novel in-silico designed spike-based antigens capable of inducing neutralising antibodies across a spectrum of SARS-CoV-2 VOCs. Three sets of antigens utilising pre-Delta (T2_32), and post-Gamma sequence data (T2_35 and T2_36) were designed. T2_32 elicited superior neutralising responses against VOCs compared to the Wuhan-1 spike antigen in DNA prime-boost immunisation regime in guinea pigs. Heterologous boosting with the attenuated poxvirus - Modified vaccinia Ankara expressing T2_32 induced broader neutralising immune responses in all primed animals. T2_32, T2_35 and T2_36 elicited broader neutralising capacity compared to the Omicron BA.1 spike antigen administered by mRNA immunisation in mice. These findings demonstrate the utility of structure-informed computationally derived modifications of spike-based antigens for inducing broad immune responses covering more than 2 years of evolved SARS-CoV-2 variants.