VLP-Based COVID-19 Vaccines: An Adaptable Technology against the Threat of New Variants.

Wasim A Prates-Syed,José A M Barbuto,Larissa Vuitika,Niels O S Câmara,Gustavo Cabral-Miranda,Otávio Cabral-Marques,Victor Kersten,Momtchilo Russo,Mohammad Sadraeian,Aline Lira,Francisco E G Guimarães,Karin P Crema,Fernando L Barroso Da Silva,Nelson Côrtes,Lorena C S Chaves

doi:10.3390/vaccines9121409

Abstract

Virus-like particles (VLPs) are a versatile, safe, and highly immunogenic vaccine platform. Recently, there are developmental vaccines targeting SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic affected humanity worldwide, bringing out incomputable human and financial losses. The race for better, more efficacious vaccines is happening almost simultaneously as the virus increasingly produces variants of concern (VOCs). The VOCs Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta share common mutations mainly in the spike receptor-binding domain (RBD), demonstrating convergent evolution, associated with increased transmissibility and immune evasion. Thus, the identification and understanding of these mutations is crucial for the production of new, optimized vaccines. The use of a very flexible vaccine platform in COVID-19 vaccine development is an important feature that cannot be ignored. Incorporating the spike protein and its variations into VLP vaccines is a desirable strategy as the morphology and size of VLPs allows for better presentation of several different antigens. Furthermore, VLPs elicit robust humoral and cellular immune responses, which are safe, and have been studied not only against SARS-CoV-2 but against other coronaviruses as well. Here, we describe the recent advances and improvements in vaccine development using VLP technology.

Highlights

The SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) is the causative agent of COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) [1,2,3] and is responsible for the recent pandemic, which has already reported 248,467,363 cases and 5,027,183 deaths worldwide as of 5 November 2021 [4]
Virus-like particles (VLPs) are an attractive platform for developing vaccines against infectious diseases such as COVID-19, due to their impressive versatility and immunological applications
The main advantage of using this vaccine platform is that VLPs can closely resemble the native virus in their size, shape and antigen display

Summary

Introduction

The SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) is the causative agent of COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) [1,2,3] and is responsible for the recent pandemic, which has already reported 248,467,363 cases and 5,027,183 deaths worldwide as of 5 November 2021 [4]. The M protein (UNIPROT ID: P0DTC5) is a highly conserved homodimer and is the most abundant protein in mature virions [43,44] It plays an essential role in viral assembly, membrane fusion, and particle size and shape, through interactions with other structural proteins [63,64,65,66]. Structural vaccinology proposes the rational design and selection of antigens, including peptides, to maximize vaccine immunogenicity, safety, stability, and quality [43,132] This critical process can accelerate the development of new vaccines through several bioinformatics, biophysical, and computational tools already available [133,134,135,136,137]. These mutations could make vaccines more accessible to developing countries [146]

Enveloped VLPs against SARS-CoV-2

Non-Enveloped VLPs against SARS-CoV-2

Findings

Conclusions