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http://dx.doi.org/10.4014/jmb.2205.05023

Expression and Immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 Virus-Like Particles based on Recombinant Truncated HEV-3 ORF2 Capsid Protein  

Zhou, Yong-Fei (National Engineering Laboratory for AIDS Vaccine, School of Life Sciences, Jilin University)
Nie, Jiao-Jiao (National Engineering Laboratory for AIDS Vaccine, School of Life Sciences, Jilin University)
Shi, Chao (National Engineering Laboratory for AIDS Vaccine, School of Life Sciences, Jilin University)
Ning, Ke (National Engineering Laboratory for AIDS Vaccine, School of Life Sciences, Jilin University)
Cao, Yu-Feng (Immune-Path Biotechnology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd.)
Xie, Yanbo (Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Agricultural Biotechnology, Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences)
Xiang, Hongyu (National Engineering Laboratory for AIDS Vaccine, School of Life Sciences, Jilin University)
Xie, Qiuhong (National Engineering Laboratory for AIDS Vaccine, School of Life Sciences, Jilin University)
Publication Information
Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology / v.32, no.10, 2022 , pp. 1335-1343 More about this Journal
Abstract
COVID-19 is an emerging disease that poses a severe threat to global public health. As such, there is an urgent demand for vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Here, we describe a virus-like nanoparticle candidate vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 produced by an E. coli expression system. The fusion protein of a truncated ORF2-encoded protein of aa 439~608 (p170) from hepatitis E virus CCJD-517 and the receptor-binding domain of the spike protein from SARS-CoV-2 were expressed, purified and characterized. The antigenicity and immunogenicity of p170-RBD were evaluated in vitro and in Kunming mice. Our investigation revealed that p170-RBD self-assembled into approximately 24 nm virus-like particles, which could bind to serum from vaccinated people (p < 0.001) and receptors on cells. Immunization with p170-RBD induced the titer of IgG antibody vaccine increased from 14 days post-immunization and was significantly enhanced after a booster immunization at 28 dpi, ultimately reaching a peak level on 42 dpi with a titer of 4.97 log10. Pseudovirus neutralization tests showed that the candidate vaccine induced a strong neutralizing antibody response in mice. In this research, we demonstrated that p170-RBD possesses strong antigenicity and immunogenicity and could be a potential candidate for use in future SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development.
Keywords
SARS-CoV-2; recombinant vaccine; virus-like nanoparticles; hepatitis E virus;
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