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Carnell GW, Billmeier M, Vishwanath S, Suau Sans M, Wein H, George CL, Neckermann P, Del Rosario JMM, Sampson AT, Einhauser S, Aguinam ET, Ferrari M, Tonks P, Nadesalingam A, Schütz A, Huang CQ, Wells DA, Paloniemi M, Jordan I, Cantoni D, Peterhoff D, Asbach B, Sandig V, Temperton N, Kinsley R, Wagner R, Heeney JL. Glycan masking of a non-neutralising epitope enhances neutralising antibodies targeting the RBD of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. Front Immunol 2023; 14:1118523. [PMID: 36911730 PMCID: PMC9995963 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1118523] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2022] [Accepted: 02/07/2023] [Indexed: 02/25/2023] Open
Abstract
The accelerated development of the first generation COVID-19 vaccines has saved millions of lives, and potentially more from the long-term sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The most successful vaccine candidates have used the full-length SARS-CoV-2 spike protein as an immunogen. As expected of RNA viruses, new variants have evolved and quickly replaced the original wild-type SARS-CoV-2, leading to escape from natural infection or vaccine induced immunity provided by the original SARS-CoV-2 spike sequence. Next generation vaccines that confer specific and targeted immunity to broadly neutralising epitopes on the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein against different variants of concern (VOC) offer an advance on current booster shots of previously used vaccines. Here, we present a targeted approach to elicit antibodies that neutralise both the ancestral SARS-CoV-2, and the VOCs, by introducing a specific glycosylation site on a non-neutralising epitope of the RBD. The addition of a specific glycosylation site in the RBD based vaccine candidate focused the immune response towards other broadly neutralising epitopes on the RBD. We further observed enhanced cross-neutralisation and cross-binding using a DNA-MVA CR19 prime-boost regime, thus demonstrating the superiority of the glycan engineered RBD vaccine candidate across two platforms and a promising candidate as a broad variant booster vaccine.
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Affiliation(s)
- George W Carnell
- Lab of Viral Zoonotics, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Martina Billmeier
- Institute of Medical Microbiology & Hygiene, Molecular Microbiology (Virology), University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Sneha Vishwanath
- Lab of Viral Zoonotics, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Maria Suau Sans
- Lab of Viral Zoonotics, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Hannah Wein
- Institute of Medical Microbiology & Hygiene, Molecular Microbiology (Virology), University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Charlotte L George
- Lab of Viral Zoonotics, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Patrick Neckermann
- Institute of Medical Microbiology & Hygiene, Molecular Microbiology (Virology), University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | | | - Alexander T Sampson
- Lab of Viral Zoonotics, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Sebastian Einhauser
- Institute of Medical Microbiology & Hygiene, Molecular Microbiology (Virology), University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Ernest T Aguinam
- Lab of Viral Zoonotics, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | | | - Paul Tonks
- Lab of Viral Zoonotics, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Angalee Nadesalingam
- Lab of Viral Zoonotics, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Anja Schütz
- Institute of Medical Microbiology & Hygiene, Molecular Microbiology (Virology), University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Chloe Qingzhou Huang
- Lab of Viral Zoonotics, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | | | - Minna Paloniemi
- Lab of Viral Zoonotics, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Ingo Jordan
- Applied Science & Technologies, ProBioGen AG, Berlin, Germany
| | - Diego Cantoni
- Viral Pseudotype Unit, Medway School of Pharmacy, The Universities of Kent and Greenwich at Medway, Chatham, United Kingdom
| | - David Peterhoff
- Institute of Medical Microbiology & Hygiene, Molecular Microbiology (Virology), University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.,Institute of Clinical Microbiology and Hygiene, University Hospital Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Benedikt Asbach
- Institute of Medical Microbiology & Hygiene, Molecular Microbiology (Virology), University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Volker Sandig
- Applied Science & Technologies, ProBioGen AG, Berlin, Germany
| | - Nigel Temperton
- Viral Pseudotype Unit, Medway School of Pharmacy, The Universities of Kent and Greenwich at Medway, Chatham, United Kingdom
| | - Rebecca Kinsley
- Lab of Viral Zoonotics, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.,DIOSynVax, Ltd., Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Ralf Wagner
- Institute of Medical Microbiology & Hygiene, Molecular Microbiology (Virology), University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.,Institute of Clinical Microbiology and Hygiene, University Hospital Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Jonathan L Heeney
- Lab of Viral Zoonotics, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.,DIOSynVax, Ltd., Cambridge, United Kingdom
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