Key result
Two doses of the RQ3013 mRNA vaccine elicited robust immune responses and protected the upper and lower respiratory tract against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants in mice and nonhuman primates.
Why the study?
Emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants has led to increasing breakthrough infections, creating an urgent need for effective, broad-spectrum vaccines.
Does RQ3013 induce broad-spectrum immunity and protect against SARS-CoV-2 variants in animal models?
Does RQ3013 induce broad-spectrum immunity and protect against SARS-CoV-2 variants in animal models?
RQ3013 is a promising broad-spectrum mRNA vaccine candidate that provides robust cross-neutralizing immunity and protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants in preclinical models.
May warrant human trials of RQ3013; leaves open clinical translation of variant protection.
The global emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants has led to increasing breakthrough infections in vaccinated populations, calling for an urgent need to develop more effective and broad-spectrum vaccines to combat COVID-19. Here we report the preclinical development of RQ3013, an mRNA vaccine candidate intended to bring broad protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs). RQ3013, which contains pseudouridine-modified mRNAs formulated in lipid nanoparticles, encodes the spike (S) protein harboring a combination of mutations responsible for immune evasion of VOCs. Here we characterized the expressed S immunogen and evaluated the immunogenicity, efficacy, and safety of RQ3013 in various animal models. RQ3013 elicited robust immune responses in mice, hamsters, and nonhuman primates (NHP). It can induce high titers of antibodies with broad cross-neutralizing ability against the wild-type, B.1.1.7, B.1.351, B.1.617.2, and the newly emerging Omicron variants. In mice and NHP, two doses of RQ3013 protected the upper and lower respiratory tract against infection by SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. Furthermore, our safety assessment of RQ3013 in NHP showed no observable adverse effects. These results provide strong support for the evaluation of RQ3013 in clinical trials and suggest that it may be a promising candidate for broad protection against COVID-19 and its variants.
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Tan et al. (2023) studied SARS-CoV-2 infection. RQ3013 was evaluated on Immunogenicity, efficacy, and safety against SARS-CoV-2 and variants. Two doses of the RQ3013 mRNA vaccine elicited robust immune responses and protected the upper and lower respiratory tract against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants in mice and nonhuman primates.
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