Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Vaccine

Creative Biolabs is a world leader in the field of viral vaccine development. By consistently delivering the highest standards of quality, professionalism, and integrity, we want to become the partner of a choice for your requirements. With our extensive experience and advanced platform, we are therefore confident in offering the best vaccine development services for Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). We guarantee the finest results for our customers all over the world.

Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is a highly lethal respiratory disease caused by a novel β-coronavirus called MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and was first emerged in Saudi Arabia in 2012. It is a single-stranded RNA virus that causes severe respiratory disease in humans. The critical step in MERS-CoV infection of a host cell is the binding of the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the spike (S) glycoprotein to dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DDP4). MERS-CoV is a zoonotic virus which humans are infected through direct or indirect contact with infected dromedary camels. The typical symptoms of MERS comprise fever, cough, and shortness of breath. MERS-CoV appears to cause more severe disease in older or people with weakened immune systems, and those with chronic diseases such as renal disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, and diabetes.

The S protein of MERS-CoV is essential for recognition of hDPP4 and viral entry into cells and likely represented a prime target for immunogen design for the development of vaccines and monoclonal antibodies. We built various approaches based on the S protein to develop vaccines against MERS, including DNA vaccines, subunit vaccines, and recombinant vector vaccines.

Recombinant Vector Vaccines

Recombinant vectors expressing MERS-CoV S glycoprotein showed immunogenic in animal experiment. There are several strategies to build the recombinant MERS-CoV vector vaccines such as an inactivated rabies virus (RABV) that contains the MERS-CoV S protein expressed on its surface; a recombinant N-terminal domain (rNTD) of S proteins; a recombinant adenoviral vector encoding the S1 extracellular domain of S protein. All the animals vaccinated with the three models had antibody responses against S protein, which neutralized MERS-CoV in vitro. The results show that recombinant vector vaccines can induce MERS-CoV-specific immune responses in mice and hold promise for the development of a preventive vaccine that targets the animal reservoir, which might be an effective measure to eliminate transmission of MERS-CoV to humans.

DNA Vaccines

DNA vaccines possess amount of unique advantages such as proper antigen protein folding, rapid design and production, cost-effectiveness, and stability at non-refrigerated temperatures for convenient storage and shipping. It can induce antigen-specific humoral and cellular immune responses.

A new DNA vaccine encoding the first 725 amino acids (S1) of MERS-CoV S protein was under development. The vaccine that without combine with adjuvant still has high titers of neutralizing antibodies and in vaccination, virus loads in lungs significantly decreased. DNA vaccines can induce Th1-biased immune response even though multiple injections are usually required due to their low immunogenicity especially in large animals. DNA vaccination with the MERS-CoV S1 gene markedly increased the frequencies of antigen-specific CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells secreting IFN-γ and other cytokines which demonstrate that the vaccine encoding induces strong protective immune responses against MERS-CoV infection. To determine whether induction of balanced Th1/Th2 or Th1-biased immune response could aid in the development of safer MERS-CoV vaccine, S1-based vaccines could be a safer option compared to the full-length S-based vaccines.

Subunit Vaccines

Compared with other vaccine types, subunit vaccines are safer since viral genomic components are absent. Therefore, we have a study aimed to design and develop RBD subunit vaccines based on different human and camel MERS-CoV strains and evaluate their cross-neutralizing ability against divergent MERS-CoV strains and MAb escape mutants. The results suggest that the camel RBD retains its high binding activity to human receptor during evolution, indicating that camels will remain an important reservoir for sporadic human infection. Thus, RBD-based MERS vaccines will be an option which can be a candidate to protect individuals from MERS.

Creative Biolabs is a highly proactive, robust and diversified company with a strong, scientifically-proven background of viral vaccine development. We have experts who are pleased to share our cutting-edge technology and extensive expertise to help you with the vaccine development of the diseases caused by MERS. If you are interested in our services, please contact us for more details.

Reference

1. Yanqun Wang. (2018). “Current understanding of middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection in human and animal models.” J Thorac Dis. 10(19), 2260-2271.

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