Polyvalent mpox mRNA vaccines elicit robust immune responses and confer potent protection against vaccinia virus
Tianxi Ye,
Jinge Zhou,
Chen Guo,
Kaiyue Zhang,
Yuping Wang,
Yanhui Liu,
Junhui Zhou,
Yalin Xie,
Entao Li,
Rui Gong,
Jiancun Zhang,
Xia Chuai,
Sandra Chiu
Affiliations
Tianxi Ye
State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Center for Biosafety Mega Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei 430207, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Jinge Zhou
State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Center for Biosafety Mega Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei 430207, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Chen Guo
Guangzhou Henovcom Bioscience Co., Ltd., Guangzhou, Guangdong 510700, China
Kaiyue Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Center for Biosafety Mega Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei 430207, China
Yuping Wang
State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Center for Biosafety Mega Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei 430207, China
Yanhui Liu
Guangzhou Henovcom Bioscience Co., Ltd., Guangzhou, Guangdong 510700, China
Junhui Zhou
State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Center for Biosafety Mega Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei 430207, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Yalin Xie
Guangzhou Henovcom Bioscience Co., Ltd., Guangzhou, Guangdong 510700, China
Entao Li
Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027, China; Key Laboratory of Anhui Province for Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases, Hefei, Anhui 230027, China
Rui Gong
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Center for Biosafety Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei 430207, China; Hubei Jiangxia Laboratory, Wuhan, Hubei 430200, China; Corresponding author
Jiancun Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Science, Guangzhou 510530, China; Corresponding author
Xia Chuai
State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Center for Biosafety Mega Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei 430207, China; Corresponding author
Sandra Chiu
Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027, China; Key Laboratory of Anhui Province for Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases, Hefei, Anhui 230027, China; Corresponding author
Summary: The 2022 mpox outbreak led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare it a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). There is a need to develop more effective and safer mpox virus (MPXV)-specific vaccines in response to the mpox epidemic. The mRNA vaccine is a promising platform to protect against MPXV infection. In this study, we construct two bivalent MPXV mRNA vaccines, designated LBA (B6R-A29L) and LAM (A35R-M1R), and a quadrivalent mRNA vaccine, LBAAM (B6R-A35R-A29L-M1R). The immunogenicity and protective efficacy of these vaccines alone or in combination were evaluated in a lethal mouse model. All mRNA vaccine candidates could elicit potential antigen-specific humoral and cellular immune responses and provide protection against vaccinia virus (VACV) infection. The protective effect of the combination of two bivalent mRNA vaccines and the quadrivalent vaccine was superior to that of the individual bivalent mRNA vaccine. Our study provides valuable insights for the development of more efficient and safer mRNA vaccines against mpox.
