SARS-CoV-2 ferritin nanoparticle vaccines elicit broad SARS coronavirus immunogenicity.

Journal: Cell Reports
Published:
Abstract

The need for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) next-generation vaccines has been highlighted by the rise of variants of concern (VoCs) and the long-term threat of emerging coronaviruses. Here, we design and characterize four categories of engineered nanoparticle immunogens that recapitulate the structural and antigenic properties of the prefusion SARS-CoV-2 spike (S), S1, and receptor-binding domain (RBD). These immunogens induce robust S binding, ACE2 inhibition, and authentic and pseudovirus neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. A spike-ferritin nanoparticle (SpFN) vaccine elicits neutralizing titers (ID50 > 10,000) following a single immunization, whereas RBD-ferritin nanoparticle (RFN) immunogens elicit similar responses after two immunizations and also show durable and potent neutralization against circulating VoCs. Passive transfer of immunoglobulin G (IgG) purified from SpFN- or RFN-immunized mice protects K18-hACE2 transgenic mice from a lethal SARS-CoV-2 challenge. Furthermore, S-domain nanoparticle immunization elicits ACE2-blocking activity and ID50 neutralizing antibody titers >2,000 against SARS-CoV-1, highlighting the broad response elicited by these immunogens.

Authors
M Joyce, Wei-hung Chen, Rajeshwer Sankhala, Agnes Hajduczki, Paul Thomas, Misook Choe, Elizabeth Martinez, William Chang, Caroline Peterson, Elaine Morrison, Clayton Smith, Rita Chen, Aslaa Ahmed, Lindsay Wieczorek, Alexander Anderson, James Case, Yifan Li, Therese Oertel, Lorean Rosado, Akshaya Ganesh, Connor Whalen, Joshua Carmen, Letzibeth Mendez Rivera, Christopher Karch, Neelakshi Gohain, Zuzana Villar, David Mccurdy, Zoltan Beck, Jiae Kim, Shikha Shrivastava, Ousman Jobe, Vincent Dussupt, Sebastian Molnar, Ursula Tran, Chandrika Kannadka, Sandrine Soman, Caitlin Kuklis, Michelle Zemil, Htet Khanh, Weimin Wu, Matthew Cole, Debra Duso, Larry Kummer, Tricia Lang, Shania Muncil, Jeffrey Currier, Shelly Krebs, Victoria Polonis, Saravanan Rajan, Patrick Mctamney, Mark Esser, William Reiley, Morgane Rolland, Natalia De Val, Michael Diamond, Gregory Gromowski, Gary Matyas, Mangala Rao, Nelson Michael, Kayvon Modjarrad