Researchers have developed a vaccine that has been shown in mice to protect against a broad range of coronaviruses with potential for future disease outbreaks. This is a new approach to vaccine development called ‘proactive vaccinology’, where scientists build a vaccine before the disease-causing pathogen even emerges.
The new vaccine works by training the body’s immune system to recognise specific regions of eight different coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and several that are currently circulating in bats and have potential to jump to humans and cause a pandemic.
Key to its effectiveness is that the specific virus regions the vaccine targets also appear in many related coronaviruses. By training the immune system to attack these regions, it gives protection against other coronaviruses not represented in the vaccine, including ones that haven’t even been identified yet. For example, the new vaccine does not include the SARS-CoV-1 coronavirus, which caused the 2003 SARS outbreak, yet it still induces an immune response to that virus.
Rory Hills, a graduate researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Pharmacology and first author of the report said: “Our focus is to create a vaccine that will protect us against the next coronavirus pandemic, and have it ready before the pandemic has even started. We’ve created a vaccine that provides protection against a broad range of different coronaviruses – including ones we don’t even know about yet."
Professor Mark Howarth in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Pharmacology, senior author of the report said: “We don’t have to wait for new coronaviruses to emerge. We know enough about coronaviruses, and different immune responses to them, that we can get going with building protective vaccines against unknown coronaviruses now.”
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 novel ‘protein superglue’. Multiple antigens are included in these chains, which trains the immune system to target specific regions shared across a broad range of coronaviruses.
This study demonstrated that the new vaccine raises a broad immune response, even in mice that were pre-immunised with SARS-CoV-2.
The new vaccine is much simpler in design than other broadly protective vaccines currently in development, which the researchers say should accelerate its route into clinical trials. The underlying technology they have developed also has potential for use in vaccine development to protect against many other health challenges.
- Hills RA, Tan TK, Cohen AA et al. Proactive vaccination using multiviral Quartet Nanocages to elicit broad anti-coronavirus responses. Nat Nanotechnol. 2024 May 6. doi: 10.1038/s41565-024-01655-9. Online ahead of print.
