NPJ vaccines

Immune response and protection from an mRNA vaccine using a virus-like spike protein against COVID-19

Updated

Abstract

Essence

An encoding spike antigens may strengthen SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses and protection compared with conventional spike mRNA vaccines.

Evidence

Preclinical platform experiments in mice, non-human primates, and hamsters found stronger variant-neutralizing antibodies, at least six-month antibody durability in primates, and complete hamster protection at low mRNA-VLP doses.

Caveat

The evidence is from animal studies, so human safety, immunogenicity, durability, and clinical protection remain untested in this abstract.

Simplified

Key numbers

236 vs. 68
nAb GMT Increase
nAb GMTs for Delta vs. mRNA-native Delta at 196 days post-vaccination.
2 µg
Complete Protection
2 µg of bivalent protected hamsters from weight loss post-infection.
6 months
nAb Durability
Duration of elevated nAb levels in non-human primates post-vaccination.

Full Text

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Funding

Competing interests

Competing interests: J.P.L., Y.C., T.K., Y.Z., K.R., K.R., D.F., R.R., O.A., V.C.P., N.J., V.P., S.S., A.P., G.P., S.D., H.A., H.P., Y.-H.C., G.T., M.N., J.G., P.S., J.R.F., M.E. are current employees of AstraZeneca and hold or may hold stock in AstraZeneca. R.C., C.K., Y.-M.L., and W.B. are previous employees of AstraZeneca and hold or may hold stock in AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca has filed patent applications (WO/2024/153794 and US20240277834) related to mRNA-VLP and mRNA vaccines. All other authors declare no competing interests.
PubMed

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