Chem Commun (Camb) . RBD conjugate vaccine with a built-in TLR1/2 agonist is highly immunogenic against SARS-CoV-2 and variants of concern

[tetano]

Chem Commun (Camb)


. 2022 Jan 18.
doi: 10.1039/d1cc06520c. Online ahead of print.
RBD conjugate vaccine with a built-in TLR1/2 agonist is highly immunogenic against SARS-CoV-2 and variants of concern


Shi-Hao Zhou ¹ , Ru-Yan Zhang ¹ , Hai-Wei Zhang ² , Yan-Ling Liu ¹ , Yu Wen ¹ , Jian Wang ¹ , Yu-Ting Li ¹ , Zi-Wei You ¹ , Xu-Guang Yin ¹ , Hong Qiu ³ , Rui Gong ² , Guang-Fu Yang ¹ , Jun Guo ¹



Affiliations

• PMID: 35040862
• DOI: 10.1039/d1cc06520c

Abstract

The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is causing serious impacts in the world, and safe and effective vaccines and medicines are the best methods to combat the disease. The receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein plays a key role in interacting with the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor, and is regarded as an important target of vaccines. Herein, we constructed the adjuvant-protein conjugate Pam₃CSK₄-RBD as a vaccine candidate, in which the N-terminal of the RBD was site-selectively oxidized by transamination and conjugated with the TLR1/2 agonist Pam₃CSK₄. This demonstrated that the conjugation of Pam₃CSK₄ significantly enhanced the anti-RBD antibody response and cellular response. In addition, sera from the Pam₃CSK₄-RBD immunized group efficiently inhibited the binding of the RBD to ACE2 and protected cells from SARS-CoV-2 and four variants of concern (alpha, beta, gamma and delta), indicating that this adjuvant strategy could be one of the effective means for protein vaccine development.