RESUMO
Since the outbreak of monkeypox (mpox) in 2022, widespread concern has been placed on imposing an urgent demand for specific vaccines that offer safer and more effective protection. Using an efficient and scalable circular RNA (circRNA) platform, we constructed four circRNA vaccines that could induce robust neutralizing antibodies as well as T cell responses by expressing different surface proteins of mpox virus (MPXV), resulting in potent protection against vaccinia virus (VACV) in mice. Strikingly, the combination of the four circular RNA vaccines demonstrated the best protection against VACV challenge among all the tested vaccines. Our study provides a favorable approach for developing MPXV-specific vaccines by using a circular mRNA platform and opens up novel avenues for future vaccine research.
Assuntos
Anticorpos Neutralizantes , Monkeypox virus , RNA Circular , Vaccinia virus , Animais , Camundongos , Vaccinia virus/genética , Vaccinia virus/imunologia , RNA Circular/genética , Anticorpos Neutralizantes/imunologia , Monkeypox virus/imunologia , Monkeypox virus/genética , Anticorpos Antivirais/imunologia , Vacínia/prevenção & controle , Vacínia/imunologia , Mpox/prevenção & controle , Mpox/imunologia , Vacinas Virais/imunologia , Vacinas Virais/genética , Humanos , Modelos Animais de Doenças , Feminino , Linfócitos T/imunologia , Linfócitos T/metabolismoRESUMO
The 2022 mpox outbreak led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare it a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). There is a need to develop more effective and safer mpox virus (MPXV)-specific vaccines in response to the mpox epidemic. The mRNA vaccine is a promising platform to protect against MPXV infection. In this study, we construct two bivalent MPXV mRNA vaccines, designated LBA (B6R-A29L) and LAM (A35R-M1R), and a quadrivalent mRNA vaccine, LBAAM (B6R-A35R-A29L-M1R). The immunogenicity and protective efficacy of these vaccines alone or in combination were evaluated in a lethal mouse model. All mRNA vaccine candidates could elicit potential antigen-specific humoral and cellular immune responses and provide protection against vaccinia virus (VACV) infection. The protective effect of the combination of two bivalent mRNA vaccines and the quadrivalent vaccine was superior to that of the individual bivalent mRNA vaccine. Our study provides valuable insights for the development of more efficient and safer mRNA vaccines against mpox.