Nature medicineMar 13, 2026

mRNA vaccine for Nipah virus tested in healthy adults: early safety trial

mRNA Technology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗OA ↗

Updated Jun 28, 2026

Abstract

Essence

The structure-based mRNA-1215 Nipah vaccine was well tolerated in healthy adults and produced durable antibody responses.

Evidence

This first-in-human open-label dose-escalation phase 1 trial gave two mRNA-1215 doses to 40 healthy adults across 10, 25, 50, and 100 microgram groups and found mostly mild local and systemic adverse events, no serious adverse events, robust binding antibodies, and neutralizing titers that rose after boosting and stayed elevated for at least 1 year.

Caveat

The study was small and open-label in healthy adults and measured safety and immunogenicity rather than protection against Nipah infection in at-risk populations.

Simplified

Nipah virus (NiV) is a highly pathogenic, zoonotic paramyxovirus with pandemic potential. No licensed vaccines or treatments are available. Therefore, we conducted a phase 1, first-in-human, open-label, dose-escalation trial of a lipid nanoparticle mRNA vaccine, mRNA-1215, encoding a chimeric pre-fusion F (Pre-F) protein linked to glycoprotein G of a NiV Malaysian strain. Forty healthy adults, who met eligibility criteria, were enrolled into the 10-, 25-, 50- or 100-μg dose groups with ten participants per group. Each participant received two doses of mRNA-1215, intramuscularly, at a 4-week interval except for one participant in the 10-μg dose group who received only the first dose. All participants remained in the study until their final study visit. The primary outcome of vaccine safety and tolerability was determined by prespecified end points: the frequency and severity of solicited local and systemic adverse events (AEs), unsolicited AEs, safety laboratory measures, medically attended AEs, AEs of special interest, new chronic medical conditions and serious AEs. The most frequently reported local and systemic AEs were mild pain and tenderness at the injection site (n = 33; 82%) and mild malaise (n = 16; 40%), respectively. Overall, the vaccine was well tolerated. No serious AEs occurred during the study. mRNA-1215 elicited robust Pre-F and G binding antibody titers, the prespecified secondary end points. An exploratory analysis found that mRNA-1215 elicited neutralizing titers by 2 weeks after the prime in all dose groups. Responses increased after the boost and remained elevated for at least 1 year after vaccination. These findings demonstrate an initial overall favorable safety profile and immunogenicity results for a first-in-human, structure-based, chimeric mRNA Nipah virus vaccine. mRNA-1215 is a promising vaccine candidate for continued clinical development for populations at risk for regional and potentially larger outbreaks caused by Nipah virus. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT05398796 .