There is an unmet need for safe and effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccines that are stable and can be cost-effectively produced at large scale. Here, we used a biopolymer particle (BP) vaccine technology that can be quickly adapted to new and emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2. We describe coronavirus antigen-coated BPs as vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. The spike protein subunit S1 or epitopes from S and M proteins (SM) plus/minus the nucleocapsid protein (N) were selected as antigens to either coat BPs during assembly inside engineered Escherichia coli or BPs were engineered to specifically ligate glycosylated spike protein (S1-ICC) produced by using baculovirus expression in insect cell culture (ICC). BP vaccines were safe and immunogenic in mice. BP vaccines, SM-BP-N and S1-ICC-BP induced protective immunity in the hamster SARS-CoV-2 infection model as shown by reduction of virus titres up to viral clearance in lungs post infection. The BP platform offers the possibility for rapid design and cost-effective large-scale manufacture of ambient temperature stable and globally available vaccines to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
| Authors | Chen, Shuxiong; Evert, Benjamin; Adeniyi, Adetayo; Salla-Martret, Mercè; Lua, Linda H-L; Ozberk, Victoria; Pandey, Manisha; Good, Michael F; Suhrbier, Andreas; Halfmann, Peter; Kawaoka, Yoshihiro; Rehm, Bernd H A |
|---|---|
| Journal | Advanced healthcare materials |
| Pages | e2102089 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Date | 1/01/2021 |
| Grant ID | |
| Funding Body | |
| URL | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=10.1002/adhm.202102089 |