Rational development of a combined mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 and influenza.

Abstract

As the world continues to experience the COVID-19 pandemic, seasonal influenza remain a cause of severe morbidity and mortality globally. Worse yet, coinfection with SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A virus (IAV) leads to more severe clinical outcomes. The development of a combined vaccine against both COVID-19 and influenza is thus of high priority. Based on our established lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-encapsulated mRNA vaccine platform, we developed and characterized a novel mRNA vaccine encoding the HA antigen of influenza A (H1N1) virus, termed ARIAV. Then, ARIAV was combined with our COVID-19 mRNA vaccine ARCoV, which encodes the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 S protein, to formulate the final combined vaccine, AR-CoV/IAV. Further characterization demonstrated that immunization with two doses of AR-CoV/IAV elicited robust protective antibodies as well as antigen-specific cellular immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 and IAV. More importantly, AR-CoV/IAV immunization protected mice from coinfection with IAV and the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha and Delta variants. Our results highlight the potential of the LNP-mRNA vaccine platform in preventing COVID-19 and influenza, as well as other respiratory diseases.

• Authors: Qing Ye, Mei Wu, Chao Zhou, Xishan Lu, Baoying Huang, Ning Zhang, Hui Zhao, Hang Chi, Xiaojing Zhang, Dandan Ling, Rong-Rong Zhang, Zhuofan Li, Dan Luo, Yi-Jiao Huang, Hong-Ying Qiu, Haifeng Song, Wenjie Tan, Ke Xu, Bo Ying, Cheng-Feng Qin
• Journal: NPJ vaccines (NPJ Vaccines) Vol. 7 Issue 1 Pg. 84 (Jul 26 2022) ISSN: 2059-0105 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 35882870 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: © 2022. The Author(s).