ABSTRACT
Safe and effective vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its variants are the best approach to successfully combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the viral spike protein is a major target to develop candidate vaccines. α-Galactosylceramide (αGalCer), a potent invariant natural killer T cell (iNKT) agonist, was site-specifically conjugated to the N-terminus of the RBD to form an adjuvant-protein conjugate, which was anchored on the liposome surface. This is the first time that an iNKT cell agonist was conjugated to the protein antigen. Compared to the unconjugated RBD/αGalCer mixture, the αGalCer-RBD conjugate induced significantly stronger humoral and cellular responses. The conjugate vaccine also showed effective cross-neutralization to all variants of concern (B.1.1.7/alpha, B.1.351/beta, P.1/gamma, B.1.617.2/delta, and B.1.1.529/omicron). These results suggest that the self-adjuvanting αGalCer-RBD has great potential to be an effective COVID-19 vaccine candidate, and this strategy might be useful for designing various subunit vaccines.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 Vaccines/therapeutic use , COVID-19/therapy , Galactosylceramides/therapeutic use , Peptide Fragments/therapeutic use , SARS-CoV-2/immunology , Vaccines, Conjugate/therapeutic use , Adjuvants, Immunologic/chemistry , Adjuvants, Immunologic/therapeutic use , Animals , Antibodies, Neutralizing/immunology , Antibodies, Viral/immunology , COVID-19 Vaccines/chemistry , COVID-19 Vaccines/immunology , Female , Galactosylceramides/chemistry , Galactosylceramides/immunology , Immunity, Humoral/drug effects , Immunity, Innate/drug effects , Interferon-gamma/metabolism , Liposomes/chemistry , Liposomes/immunology , Liposomes/therapeutic use , Mice, Inbred BALB C , Peptide Fragments/chemistry , Peptide Fragments/immunology , Protein Domains , Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus/chemistry , Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus/immunology , Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus/therapeutic use , Vaccines, Conjugate/chemistry , Vaccines, Conjugate/immunologyABSTRACT
Adjuvants are important components in vaccines to increase the immunogenicity of proteins and induce optimal immunity. In this study, we designed a novel ternary adjuvant system Alum + c-GAMP + poly(I:C) with STING agonist 3,3'-c-GAMP (c-GAMP) and TLR3 agonist poly(I:C) co-adsorbed on the conventional adjuvant aluminum gel (Alum), and further constructed an S1 protein vaccine. Two doses of vaccination with the ternary adjuvant vaccine were sufficient to induce a balanced Th1/Th2 immune response and robust humoral and cellular immunity. Additionally, the ternary adjuvant group had effective neutralizing activity against live virus SARS-CoV-2 and pseudovirus of all variants of concern (alpha, beta, gamma, delta and omicron). These results indicate that the ternary adjuvants have a significant synergistic effect and can rapidly trigger potent immune responses; the combination of the ternary adjuvant system with S1 protein is a promising COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , SARS-CoV-2 , Adjuvants, Immunologic/pharmacology , Alum Compounds , Aluminum , Animals , Antibodies, Viral , COVID-19/prevention & control , COVID-19 Vaccines/pharmacology , Humans , Immunity, Cellular , Mice , Mice, Inbred BALB C , Poly IABSTRACT
The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is causing serious impacts in the world, and safe and effective vaccines and medicines are the best methods to combat the disease. The receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein plays a key role in interacting with the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor, and is regarded as an important target of vaccines. Herein, we constructed the adjuvant-protein conjugate Pam3CSK4-RBD as a vaccine candidate, in which the N-terminal of the RBD was site-selectively oxidized by transamination and conjugated with the TLR1/2 agonist Pam3CSK4. This demonstrated that the conjugation of Pam3CSK4 significantly enhanced the anti-RBD antibody response and cellular response. In addition, sera from the Pam3CSK4-RBD immunized group efficiently inhibited the binding of the RBD to ACE2 and protected cells from SARS-CoV-2 and four variants of concern (alpha, beta, gamma and delta), indicating that this adjuvant strategy could be one of the effective means for protein vaccine development.