Epitope-focused vaccine immunogens design using tailored horseshoe-shaped scaffold.

ABSTRACT: The continuous emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants highlights the need to update coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) vaccine components. Epitope-based vaccine designs targeting conserved and immunorecessive regions of SARS-CoV-2 are critically needed. Here, we report an engineered epitope-focused immunogen design based on a novel horseshoe-shaped natural protein scaffold, named ribonuclease inhibitor 1 (RNH1), that can multiply display of conserved neutralizing epitopes from SARS-CoV-2 S2 stem helix. The designed immunogen RNH1-S1139 demonstrates high binding affinity to S2-specific neutralizing antibodies and elicits robust epitope-targeted antibody responses either through homologous or heterologous vaccination regimens. RNH1-S1139 immune se

SUBMITTER: Zhao F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11834273 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature