Heliyon (Oct 2021)

PRAK-03202: A triple antigen virus-like particle vaccine candidate against SARS CoV-2

  • Saumyabrata Mazumder,
  • Ruchir Rastogi,
  • Avinash Undale,
  • Kajal Arora,
  • Nupur Mehrotra Arora,
  • Biswa Pratim,
  • Dilip Kumar,
  • Abyson Joseph,
  • Bhupesh Mali,
  • Vidya Bhushan Arya,
  • Sriganesh Kalyanaraman,
  • Abhishek Mukherjee,
  • Aditi Gupta,
  • Swaroop Potdar,
  • Sourav Singha Roy,
  • Deepak Parashar,
  • Jeny Paliwal,
  • Sudhir Kumar Singh,
  • Aelia Naqvi,
  • Apoorva Srivastava,
  • Manglesh Kumar Singh,
  • Devanand Kumar,
  • Sarthi Bansal,
  • Satabdi Rautray,
  • Manish Saini,
  • Kshipra Jain,
  • Reeshu Gupta,
  • Prabuddha Kumar Kundu

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 10
p. e08124

Abstract

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The rapid development of safe and effective vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV-2) is a necessary response to coronavirus outbreak. Here, we developed PRAK-03202, the world's first triple antigen virus-like particle vaccine candidate, by cloning and transforming SARS-CoV-2 gene segments into a highly characterized S. cerevisiae-based D-Crypt™ platform, which induced SARS CoV-2 specific neutralizing antibodies in BALB/c mice. Immunization using three different doses of PRAK-03202 induced an antigen-specific (spike, envelope, and membrane proteins) humoral response and neutralizing potential. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from convalescent patients showed lymphocyte proliferation and elevated interferon levels suggestive of epitope conservation and induction of T helper 1-biased cellular immune response when exposed to PRAK-03202. These data support further clinical development and testing of PRAK-03202 for use in humans.

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