ABSTRACT
SARS-CoV-2 continues to accumulate mutations to evade immunity, leading to breakthrough infections after vaccination. How researchers can anticipate the evolutionary trajectory of the virus in advance in the design of next-generation vaccines requires investigation. Here, we performed a comprehensive study of 11,650,487 SARS-CoV-2 sequences, which revealed that the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein evolved not randomly but into directional paths of either high infectivity plus low immune resistance or low infectivity plus high immune resistance. The viral infectivity and immune resistance of variants are generally incompatible, except for limited variants such as Beta and Kappa. The Omicron variant has the highest immune resistance but showed high infectivity in only one of the tested cell lines. To provide cross-clade immunity against variants that undergo diverse evolutionary pathways, we designed a new pan-vaccine antigen (Span). Span was designed by analyzing the homology of 2675 SARS-CoV-2 S protein sequences from the NCBI database before the Delta variant emerged. The refined Span protein harbors high-frequency residues at given positions that reflect cross-clade generality in sequence evolution. Compared with a prototype wild-type (Swt) vaccine, which, when administered to mice, induced serum with decreased neutralization activity against emerging variants, Span vaccination of mice elicited broad immunity to a wide range of variants, including those that emerged after our design. Moreover, vaccinating mice with a heterologous Span booster conferred complete protection against lethal infection with the Omicron variant. Our results highlight the importance and feasibility of a universal vaccine to fight against SARS-CoV-2 antigenic drift.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE To find out whether 2811 will cause toxic reactions in animals, and determine the safe dose of without any toxic reactions and the relationship between the dose, time of administration and results of the toxicity test. METHODS Thirty healthy rhesus monkeys were selected and randomly divided into 3 groups, 1 O in each group (half males and half females), namely, the solvent control group, 2811 100 and 400 mg* kg-1 groups, respectively. The solvent control group was iv given 0.9% sodium chloride injection, while the experimental groups were iv given 2811 100 and 400 mg* kg-1 , respectively, once every 6 days, 3 times in 2 weeks, and allowed to recover for 9 weeks after drug withdrawal. During the test, the body weight, food intakes, body temperatures, ophthalmology, blood pressure, electrocardiograms, blood routine, anticoagulation, blood biochemistry, electrolytes, urine, systemic anatomy, organ weight and coefficient were observed, while histopathology and immunology tests were performed. At the same time, the anti-drug antibody (ADA) and plasma concentrations were determined, and toxikinetic parameters were analyzed. RESULTS During the experiment, the observation of general symptoms, body mass, food intakes, body temperatures, ophthalmology, blood pressure, electrocardiograms, blood routine, anticoagulation, blood biochemistry, electrolytes, urine, organ weight and coefficient, histopathology and immunology of animals in each dose group showed no significant changes related to the tested animals. ADA was not detected in any of the groups. Plasma drug concentrations in 2B11 100 and 400 mg* kg-1 groups were basically consistent and proportional to the dose, so was the ratio of peak concentration and exposure. 2B11 injection showed linear kinetics in vivo. CONCLUSION Under the conditions set in this test, the 2-week repeated administration toxicity test of 2B11 in rhesus monkeys is safe, and no clinical adverse reactions are observed at the dose level of 400 mg*kg-1, which provides reference for the follow-up clinical study of 2B11. Copyright © 2022 Chinese Journal of Pharmacology and Toxicology. All rights reserved.