Applied microbiology and biotechnologyApr 6, 2026

mRNA vaccine using foot-and-mouth disease virus-like particles triggers strong antibody and cell immune responses

mRNA Technology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗OA ↗

Updated Jun 27, 2026

Abstract

Essence

A self-assembling foot-and-mouth disease mRNA vaccine induced both antibody and cellular immune responses in animal models.

Evidence

This preclinical vaccine study immunized mice to measure humoral and cellular immunity and used guinea pig challenge experiments showing protection comparable to traditional inactivated vaccines.

Caveat

The evidence is limited to mouse immunogenicity and guinea pig challenge models, so durability and field protection in target livestock remain uncertain.

Simplified

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a major animal infectious disease that has garnered significant international attention. Currently, conventional inactivated vaccines and (VLP) vaccines primarily induce protective immune responses through the generation of neutralizing antibodies. However, these vaccines exhibit limited activation of cellular immunity and offer short-term immune persistence. Furthermore, inactivated vaccines raise certain biosafety concerns. In this study, an FMD mRNA vaccine capable of self-assembling into non-infectious VLP was developed. Immunization of mice demonstrated that this VLP mRNA vaccine not only elicited robust humoral immune responses with long-lasting antibody production but also effectively activated cellular immunity. In guinea pig challenge experiments, it provided immune protection comparable to that of traditional inactivated vaccines. The dual immune mechanism-simultaneously activating both humoral and cellular immunity-overcomes the limitations of traditional vaccines, making this VLP mRNA vaccine an innovative candidate for FMD control and providing a technical foundation for the development of VLP mRNA vaccines for other animal diseases. KEY POINTS: • A novel FMD mRNA vaccine that self-assembles into VLP was successfully developed. • The FMD VLP mRNA vaccine effectively stimulates both humoral and cellular immune responses. • The FMD VLP mRNA vaccine provides protective efficacy in guinea pig challenge models.

Key numbers

1:512

Neutralizing Antibody Titer Peak

Measured in BALB/c mice after vaccination with LNP-mP12A3C.

100%

Protection Rate

Observed in guinea pigs post-challenge with FMDV.

Full Text

We can’t show the full text here under this license.

View Full Text ↗

mRNA vaccine using foot-and-mouth disease virus-like particles triggers strong antibody and cell immune responses

Abstract

Key numbers

Full Text

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

what lands in your inbox each week:

Recent issues from the mrna technology brief