Development of a Synthetic Poxvirus-Based SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine

Chiuppesi, F.; Werner, M. S.; Contreras, H.; Nguyen, H. V.; Martinez, J.; Park, S.; Nguyen, J.; Kha, M.; Iniguez, A.; Zhou, Q.; Kaltcheva, T.; Levytskyy, R.; Ebelt, N. D.; Kang, T. H.; Wu, X.; Rogers, T.; Manuel, E. R.; Shostak, Y.; Diamond, D. J.; Wussow, F.

doi:10.1101/2020.07.01.183236

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2020.07.01.183236

Development of a Synthetic Poxvirus-Based SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine

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Abstract

Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) is a highly attenuated poxvirus vector that is widely used to develop vaccines for infectious diseases and cancer. We developed a novel vaccine platform based on a unique three-plasmid system to efficiently generate recombinant MVA vectors from chemically synthesized DNA. In response to the ongoing global pandemic caused by SARS coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), we used this novel vaccine platform to rapidly produce fully synthetic MVA (sMVA) vectors co-expressing SARS-CoV-2 spike and nucleocapsid antigens, two immunodominant antigens implicated in protective immunity. Mice immunized with these sMVA vectors developed robust SARS-CoV-2 antigen-specific humoral and cellular immune responses, including potent neutralizing antibodies. These results demonstrate the potential of a novel vaccine platform based on synthetic DNA to efficiently generate recombinant MVA vectors and to rapidly develop a multi-antigenic poxvirus-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text

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Chiuppesi, F., Werner, M. S., Contreras, H., Nguyen, H. V., Martinez, J., Park, S., Nguyen, J., Kha, M., Iniguez, A., Zhou, Q., Kaltcheva, T., Levytskyy, R., Ebelt, N. D., Kang, T. H., Wu, X., Rogers, T., Manuel, E. R., Shostak, Y., Diamond, D. J., Wussow, F.. 2020-07-02. Development of a Synthetic Poxvirus-Based SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.01.183236

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