1
|
Trimpert J, Dietert K, Firsching TC, Ebert N, Thi Nhu Thao T, Vladimirova D, Kaufer S, Labroussaa F, Abdelgawad A, Conradie A, Höfler T, Adler JM, Bertzbach LD, Jores J, Gruber AD, Thiel V, Osterrieder N, Kunec D. Development of safe and highly protective live-attenuated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidates by genome recoding. Cell Rep 2021; 36:109493. [PMID: 34320400 PMCID: PMC8289629 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109493] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2021] [Revised: 05/21/2021] [Accepted: 07/14/2021] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Safe and effective vaccines are urgently needed to stop the pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We construct a series of live attenuated vaccine candidates by large-scale recoding of the SARS-CoV-2 genome and assess their safety and efficacy in Syrian hamsters. Animals were vaccinated with a single dose of the respective recoded virus and challenged 21 days later. Two of the tested viruses do not cause clinical symptoms but are highly immunogenic and induce strong protective immunity. Attenuated viruses replicate efficiently in the upper but not in the lower airways, causing only mild pulmonary histopathology. After challenge, hamsters develop no signs of disease and rapidly clear challenge virus: at no time could infectious virus be recovered from the lungs of infected animals. The ease with which attenuated virus candidates can be produced and administered favors their further development as vaccines to combat the ongoing pandemic.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jakob Trimpert
- Institut für Virologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Kristina Dietert
- Institut für Tierpathologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Tiermedizinisches Zentrum für Resistenzforschung, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | | | - Nadine Ebert
- Institute of Virology and Immunology, Bern and Mittelhäusern, Switzerland; Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Tran Thi Nhu Thao
- Institute of Virology and Immunology, Bern and Mittelhäusern, Switzerland; Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; Graduate School for Biomedical Science, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | | | - Susanne Kaufer
- Institut für Virologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Fabien Labroussaa
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; Institute of Veterinary Bacteriology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Azza Abdelgawad
- Institut für Virologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Andelé Conradie
- Institut für Virologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Thomas Höfler
- Institut für Virologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Julia M Adler
- Institut für Virologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Luca D Bertzbach
- Institut für Virologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Joerg Jores
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; Institute of Veterinary Bacteriology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Achim D Gruber
- Institut für Tierpathologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Volker Thiel
- Institute of Virology and Immunology, Bern and Mittelhäusern, Switzerland; Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Nikolaus Osterrieder
- Institut für Virologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health, Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong
| | - Dusan Kunec
- Institut für Virologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Baker SF, Nogales A, Martínez-Sobrido L. Downregulating viral gene expression: codon usage bias manipulation for the generation of novel influenza A virus vaccines. Future Virol 2015. [PMID: 26213563 DOI: 10.2217/fvl.15.31] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Vaccination represents the best option to protect humans against influenza virus. However, improving the effectiveness of current vaccines could better stifle the health burden caused by viral infection. Protein synthesis from individual genes can be downregulated by synthetically deoptimizing a gene's codon usage. With more rapid and affordable nucleotide synthesis, generating viruses that contain genes with deoptimized codons is now feasible. Attenuated, vaccine-candidate viruses can thus be engineered with hitherto uncharacterized properties. With eight gene segments, influenza A viruses with variably recoded genomes can produce a spectrum of attenuation that is contingent on the gene segment targeted and the number of codon changes. This review summarizes different targets and approaches to deoptimize influenza A virus codons for novel vaccine generation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Steven F Baker
- Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
| | - Aitor Nogales
- Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
| | - Luis Martínez-Sobrido
- Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
| |
Collapse
|