A ferritin-based COVID-19 nanoparticle vaccine that elicits robust, durable, broad-spectrum neutralizing antisera in non-human primates

Payton A-B Weidenbacher; Mrinmoy Sanyal; Natalia Friedland; Shaogeng Tang; Prabhu S Arunachalam; Mengyun Hu; Ozan S Kumru; Mary Kate Morris; Jane Fontenot; Lisa Shirreff; Jonathan Do; Ya-Chen Cheng; Gayathri Vasudevan; Mark B Feinberg; Francois J Villinger; Carl Hanson; Sangeeta B Joshi; David B Volkin; Bali Pulendran; Peter S Kim

doi:10.1101/2022.12.25.521784

A ferritin-based COVID-19 nanoparticle vaccine that elicits robust, durable, broad-spectrum neutralizing antisera in non-human primates

bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2022 Dec 26:2022.12.25.521784. doi: 10.1101/2022.12.25.521784.

Authors

Payton A-B Weidenbacher^{1

2}, Mrinmoy Sanyal^{1

3}, Natalia Friedland^{1

3}, Shaogeng Tang^{1

3}, Prabhu S Arunachalam⁴, Mengyun Hu⁴, Ozan S Kumru⁵, Mary Kate Morris⁶, Jane Fontenot⁷, Lisa Shirreff⁷, Jonathan Do^{1

3}, Ya-Chen Cheng^{1

3}, Gayathri Vasudevan⁸, Mark B Feinberg⁸, Francois J Villinger⁷, Carl Hanson⁶, Sangeeta B Joshi⁵, David B Volkin⁵, Bali Pulendran^{4

9

10}, Peter S Kim^{1

3

11}

Affiliations

¹ Sarafan ChEM-H, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
² Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
³ Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁴ Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁵ Vaccine Analytics and Formulation Center, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA.
⁶ California Department of Public Health, Richmond, CA, USA.
⁷ New Iberia Research Center, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, New Iberia, LA, USA.
⁸ IAVI, New York, NY, USA.
⁹ Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹¹ Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, California 94158, United States.

Abstract

While the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines has been a scientific triumph, the need remains for a globally available vaccine that provides longer-lasting immunity against present and future SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs). Here, we describe DCFHP, a ferritin-based, protein-nanoparticle vaccine candidate that, when formulated with aluminum hydroxide as the sole adjuvant (DCFHP-alum), elicits potent and durable neutralizing antisera in non-human primates against known VOCs, including Omicron BQ.1, as well as against SARS-CoV-1. Following a booster âˆ¼one year after the initial immunization, DCFHP-alum elicits a robust anamnestic response. To enable global accessibility, we generated a cell line that can enable production of thousands of vaccine doses per liter of cell culture and show that DCFHP-alum maintains potency for at least 14 days at temperatures exceeding standard room temperature. DCFHP-alum has potential as a once-yearly booster vaccine, and as a primary vaccine for pediatric use including in infants.

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Abstract

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