mRNA-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate CVnCoV induces excessive ranges of virus-neutralising antibodies and mediates safety in rodents

This article was originally published here

NPJ vaccines. 2021, April 16; 6 (1): 57. doi: 10.1038 / s41541-021-00311-w.

ABSTRACT

mRNA technologies recently demonstrated their clinical effectiveness against coronavirus disease 2019 and are among the most promising technologies for combating the current pandemic. Here we show preclinical data for our clinical candidate CVnCoV, an mRNA vaccine encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles that encodes the pre-fusion stabilized heavy spike protein of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). In contrast to previously published approaches, CVnCoV consists exclusively of naturally occurring nucleotides. Immunization with CVnCoV induced strong humoral responses with high titers of virus neutralizing antibodies and robust T cell responses. CVnCoV vaccination protected hamsters from exposure to wild-type SARS-CoV-2, as demonstrated by the lack of virus replication in the lungs. Hamsters vaccinated with a suboptimal dose of CVnCoV, which led to breakthrough virus replication, showed no evidence of vaccine-exacerbated disease. Overall, the data presented here provide indications that CVnCoV is an effective and safe vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2.

PMID: 33863911 | DOI: 10.1038 / s41541-021-00311-w