Engineering a self-navigated MnARK nanovaccine for inducing potent protective immunity against novel coronavirus

Effective vaccines are vital to fight against the COVID-19 global pandemic. As a critical component of a subunit vaccine, the adjuvant is responsible for strengthening the antigen-induced immune responses. Here, we present a new nanovaccine that comprising the Receptor-Binding Domain (RBD) of spike protein and the manganese nanoadjuvant (MnARK), which induces humoral and cellular responses. Notably, even at a 5-fold lower antigen dose and with fewer injections, the MnARK vaccine immunized mice showed stronger neutralizing abilities against the infection of the pseudovirus (similar to 270-fold) and live coronavirus (> 8-fold) in vitro than that of Alum-adsorbed RBD vaccine (Alu-RBD). Furthermore, we found that the effective co-delivery of RBD antigen and MnARK to lymph nodes (LNs) elicited an increased cellular internalization and the activation of immune cells, including DCs, CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. Our findings highlight the importance of MnARK adjuvant in the design of novel coronavirus vaccines and provide a rationale strategy to design protective vaccines through promoting cellular internalization and the activation of immune-related pathways. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The new nanovaccine containing RBD and MnARK shows stronger neutralizing abilities against infection compared to the Alum-adsorbed RBD vaccine. The co-delivery of RBD antigen and MnARK to lymph nodes promotes cellular internalization and the activation of immune cells.