Title:
A rapidly adaptable biomaterial vaccine for SARS-CoV-2
Authors:
Fernanda Langellotto, Benjamin T. Seiler, Jingyou Yu, Mark J. Cartwright, Des White, Chyenne Yeager, Michael Super, Edward J. Doherty, Dan H. Barouch, David J. Mooney\
Published:
bioRxiv, 7 July 2020
[Keep in mind that this article is a preprint and not yet peer reviewed.]
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.07.192203v1
Abstract:
The global COVID-19 pandemic motivates accelerated research to develop safe and efficacious vaccines. To address this need, we leveraged a biomaterial vaccine technology that consists of mesoporous silica rods (MSRs) that provide a sustained release of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and adjuvants to concentrate and mature antigen-presenting cells at the vaccine site. Here we explored the humoral responses resulting from the use of monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA) as the adjuvant and SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins S1, S2, the nucleocapsid (N) protein, and receptor binding domain (RBD) as the target antigens. The dose of antigen and impact of pre-manufacturing of vaccines as versus loading antigen just-in-time was explored in these studies. Single shot MSR vaccines induced rapid and robust antibody titers to the presented antigens, even without the use of a boost, and sera from vaccinated animals demonstrated neutralizing activity against a SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus. Overall, these results suggest the MSR vaccine system may provide potent protective immunity when utilized to present SARS-CoV-2 antigens.