Cell: Xing Zhou's team develops next-generation inhaled new crown vaccine, with broader and more durable protection

The current new crown mutants are constantly appearing, and most of the current new crown vaccines are directed against the spike protein of the new crown virus, and the spike protein of the mutant strains continues to mutate, resulting in a decrease in the protective effect of the vaccine

On February 8, 2022, the team of Xing Zhou from McMaster University in Canada published in the top international academic journal Cell: Respiratory mucosal delivery of next-generation COVID-19 vaccine provides robust protection against both ancestral and variant strains of SARS- CoV-2 research paper

The research team has developed an inhaled new crown vaccine , confirmed that the vaccine candidate can provide broad and durable protection against the original and mutant strains of the new coronavirus, and revealed that the vaccine is delivered directly into the respiratory tract rather than traditional injection methods.

Because the inhaled vaccine first enters the lungs and upper respiratory tract of the body through the respiratory tract, it is much more effective at inducing a protective immune response, the team said

The paper is a preclinical study in a mouse model that provided key proof-of-concept and is currently conducting a Phase 1 clinical trial in healthy adults who have received two doses of the mRNA vaccine to evaluate the inhaled Covid-19 Vaccine safety

Professor Xing Zhou, the leader of the study, said that the new crown vaccines that have been approved so far are all injectable, but years of research by his team have shown that inhaled vaccines are delivered directly to the lungs, which can induce a more comprehensive protective respiratory mucosa.

In addition, the current new crown mutants are constantly appearing, and most of the current new crown vaccines are directed against the spike protein of the new crown virus, and the spike protein of the mutant strains continues to mutate, resulting in a decrease in the protective effect of the vaccine

The research team compared two adenovirus-vectored vaccine platforms developed by McMaster University's COVID-19 Vaccine Center (derived from human and chimpanzee adenoviruses) as vaccine delivery vehicles that can deliver vaccines directly to the lungs without Can cause disease or significant side effects

These two proviral vector vaccines express the spike protein, nucleocapsid and RdRp antigens of the new coronavirus

Experimental results show that single-dose intranasal inhalation vaccination, especially a chimpanzee-derived adenovirus vector vaccine, induces tripartite protective immunity consisting of local and systemic antibody responses, mucosal tissue-resident memory T cells, and mucosal immunity innate immunity better than intramuscular injection

In addition, the dose required for this inhaled vaccine is very low, and only 1% of the existing vaccine is needed to achieve the best protection effect, which means that the current vaccine production capacity and supply pressure can be greatly reduced, and it also helps to reduce cost and price

The study further showed that the intranasal inhalation vaccine provided protection against the original strain of COVID-19 and Alpha and Beta mutants

Sam Afkhami, et al.