The revolutionary “Quartet Nanocage” vaccine is effective against coronaviruses that have not even emerged yet

Researchers have created new vaccine technology that, when tested in mice, demonstrated protection against a wide variety of coronaviruses, including those that could cause future outbreaks, even those not yet identified.

It’s a new approach to vaccine development called “proactive vaccinology,” in which scientists build a vaccine before the pathogen causing the disease even appears.

The new vaccine works by training the body’s immune system to recognize specific regions of eight different coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-1,

” data-gt-translate-attributes=”({“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”})” tabindex=”0″ role=”link”>SARS-CoV-2and several that are currently circulating in bats and have the potential to transmit to humans and cause a pandemic.

The key to its effectiveness lies in the fact that

” data-gt-translate-attributes=”({“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”})” tabindex=”0″ role=”link”>virus In some regions, vaccine targets also appear in many related coronaviruses. By training the immune system to attack these regions, it confers protection against other coronaviruses not represented in the vaccine, including ones that haven’t even been identified yet.

Immune response and research objectives

For example, the new vaccine does not include the coronavirus SARS-CoV-1, which caused the SARS epidemic in 2003, but it nevertheless induces an immune response against this virus.

“Our goal is to create a vaccine that will protect us against the next coronavirus pandemic and have it ready before the pandemic even starts,” said Rory Hills, a graduate researcher in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge and first author. of the study. report.

He added: “We have created a vaccine that offers protection against a wide range of different coronaviruses, including those we don’t even know exist yet. »

The results were published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Rory Hills, a graduate researcher in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge, wants to be ready with a vaccine that will protect us against the next coronavirus pandemic before the pandemic even starts. Credit: Jacqueline Garget

“We don’t need to wait for new coronaviruses to emerge. We know enough about coronaviruses and the different immune responses to them that we can start now to develop protective vaccines against unknown coronaviruses,” said lead author Professor Mark Howarth of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge. of the report.

He added: “Scientists did an excellent job quickly producing a highly effective COVID-19 vaccine during the last pandemic, but the world was still facing a massive crisis with huge numbers of deaths. We need to figure out how we can do even better than that in the future, and an important part of that is to start developing the vaccines in advance.

The new “Quartet Nanocage” vaccine is based on a structure called a nanoparticle – a ball of proteins held together by incredibly strong interactions. Chains of different viral antigens are attached to this nanoparticle using a new “protein superglue”. Multiple antigens are included in these chains, which causes the immune system to target specific regions shared by a wide range of coronaviruses.

Collaborative efforts and technological innovations

This study demonstrated that the new vaccine triggers a broad immune response, even in mice pre-immunized against SARS-CoV-2.

The new vaccine is much simpler in design than other broadly protective vaccines currently in development, which researchers say should speed its move to clinical trials.

The underlying technology they developed also has the potential to be used in the development of vaccines to protect against many other health conditions.

The work involved a collaboration between scientists from the University of Cambridge,

” data-gt-translate-attributes=”({“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”})” tabindex=”0″ role=”link”>University of Oxfordand Caltech. It improves on previous work by Oxford and Caltech groups to develop a new all-in-one vaccine against coronavirus threats. The vaccine developed by Oxford and Caltech is expected to enter phase 1 clinical trials in early 2025, but its complex nature makes it difficult to manufacture, which could limit its large-scale production.

Conventional vaccines contain a single antigen to train the immune system to target a single specific virus. This might not protect against a wide range of existing coronaviruses or newly emerging pathogens.

Reference: “Proactive vaccination using Quartet multiviral nanocages to achieve broad anti-coronavirus responses” by Rory A. Hills, Tiong Kit Tan, Alexander A. Cohen, Jennifer R. Keeffe, Anthony H. Keeble, Priyanthi NP Gnanapragasam, Kaya N . Storm, Annie V. Rorick, Anthony P. West Jr., Michelle L. Hill, Sai Liu, Javier Gilbert-Jaramillo, Madeeha Afzal, Amy Napier, Gabrielle Admans, William S. James, Pamela J. Bjorkman, Alain R. Townsend and Mark R. Howarth, May 6, 2024, Nature Nanotechnology.
DOI: 10.1038/s41565-024-01655-9

The study was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.