Project description:We developed prototype LNP-mRNA vaccine candidates against SARS-CoV-2 Delta, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, and test how multiplexing LNP-mRNAs can induce effective immune responses in animal models. Triplex and Duplex LNP-mRNA vaccination induced antigen-specific antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. Single cell RNA-seq profiled the global systemic immune repertoires and respective transcriptome signatures of vaccinated animals, revealing systemic increase in activated B cells, and differential gene expression across major adaptive immune cells. Sequential vaccination showed potent antibody responses against all three species, significantly stronger than simultaneous vaccination in mixture. These data demonstrated feasibility, antibody responses and single cell immune profiles of multi-species coronavirus vaccination. The direct comparison between simultaneous and sequential vaccination offers insights on optimization of vaccination schedules to provide broad and potent antibody immunity against three major pathogenic coronavirus species.
Project description:The development of effective mRNA vaccines for breast cancer has been constrained by the lack of highly immunogenic and tumor-specific antigens. Here, we identify PDE6G, an immune-privileged retina-enriched antigen aberrantly overexpressed in breast tumors, and develop a PDE6G mRNA-LNP vaccine. Vaccination elicited robust CD8+ T cell responses, promoted clonal expansion of effector and IFN-competent T cell subsets, and suppressed tumor growth without detectable toxicity. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) revealed that vaccination of PDE6G mRNA-LNP reshapes the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) by expanding antigen-presenting Cd74+ tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) while reducing immunosuppressive Maf+ macrophages, and enhancing crosstalk between macrophages and CD8+ T cells. Moreover, combining PDE6G mRNA-LNP with PD-1 blockade further improved anti-tumor efficacy. These findings establish cancer-retina antigens as promising vaccine targets and demonstrate that PDE6G mRNA-LNP coordinates adaptive immunity and tumor microenvironment remodeling, providing a safe and potent strategy for breast cancer immunotherapy.
Project description:Immune tolerance to T helper 2 (Th2)-mediated allergic reactions relies largely on antigen-specific T helper 1 (Th1) and regulatory T cells, which modulate downstream immune responses upon antigen exposure and mitigate allergic diseases. While allergen-encoded mRNA-lipid nanoparticle (mRNA-LNP) vaccine elicits Th1 and cytotoxic CD8+ T responses that counterbalance Th2 immunity, co-administration of mRNA-LNP with an mTOR inhibitor shifts this profile by promoting generation of functional regulatory T cells and partially attenuating Th1 and CD8+ T cell responses. In pre-clinical models of allergic asthma, this combinatorial strategy preserved the anti-allergic effects of mRNA-LNP immunization, reduced eosinophil activation markers, and limited vaccine-associated cytotoxicity. The ability of an mTOR inhibitor to profoundly modify mRNA-LNP vaccination by inducing regulatory T cells presents a potential strategy to enhance regulatory immunity in the treatment of allergy and other inflammatory diseases.
Project description:Pulmonary bacterial infections remain a major clinical challenge. Although vaccination reduces infection rates and mortality, the vulnerable post-vaccination immunity gap can still result in infection and vaccine failure. In addition, effective vaccines are unavailable for many clinically important bacterial pathogens. Here, we report a pulmonary mRNA-lipid nanoparticle (mRNA-LNP) vaccine incorporating a novel ionizable lipid engineered for localized high-level expression, which elicits both rapid and durable protections against bacterial lung infections, effectively bridging this critical window of vulnerability. Intratracheal delivery of mRNA-LNP rapidly primes lung neutrophils and macrophages into a transcriptionally pre-activated state, enhancing their phagocytic activity and enabling rapid, antigen-independent bacterial clearance during the early post-vaccination period (approximately 1-7 days). Subsequently, vaccination induces potent antigen-specific adaptive responses, conferring sustained protection against both laboratory and clinical drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains. Single-cell transcriptomics and immune profiling reveal coordinated activation of innate and adaptive immune programs. This dual-phase immune response exemplifies a paradigm-shifting vaccine design that integrates innate and adaptive immunity to confer both immediate and long-term protection. Our findings establish a mechanistic basis for rapid antibacterial defense and highlight pulmonary mRNA-LNP vaccination as a promising strategy for combating respiratory infections.
Project description:Precise immunological mechanisms of mRNA vaccines have still not been fully elucidated, especially the initial immune responses at the injection site. Here, by constructing a single-cell atlas of injection site responses of mRNA vaccine, we show that stromal inflammatory responses and type I interferon responses dominate initial transcriptional reactions elicited by mRNA vaccines at the injection site. Tracking down the fates of the delivered mRNA revealed that injection site fibroblasts are highly enriched with the delivered mRNA, and they express IFN-β specifically in response to the mRNA component, not to the LNP. Accordingly, migratory dendritic cells highly expressing interferon stimulated genes (mDC_ISG) were found specifically in muscle and draining lymph nodes of mRNA vaccine injected mice, compared to the empty LNP injected mice. Co-administration of IFN-β and LNP robustly induced mDC_ISGs at the injection site and substantially enhanced antigen-specific CD8 T cell responses. Collectively, these data elucidate earliest mechanisms of the mRNA vaccine and highlight the underappreciated immunogenic role of the mRNA component in the mRNA vaccine.
Project description:The result show that an mRNA/LNP vaccine induced significant numbers of differentially expressed genes (DEG). The analysis identified 123 DEGs between control PBS and mRNA/LNP vaccinated groups where 23 genes and 100 genes were upregulated and downregulated, respectively, in the mRNA/LNP group. To understand the biological changes from the transcriptomic data, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed using the whole transcriptome data set. GSEA identified the biological pathways associated with interferon gamma response and protein secretion as the top two ‘Hallmark’ gene sets enriched in OVA mRNA/LNP group, compared to PBS group.
Project description:Messenger RNA vaccines based on lipid nanoparticles (mRNA-LNPs) are promising vaccine modalities. However, mRNA-LNP vaccines frequently cause adverse reactions such as swelling and fever in humans, partly due to the inflammatory nature of LNP. Modification of the ionizable lipids used in LNP is one approach to avoid these adverse reactions. Herein, we report the development of mRNA-LNP vaccines with better protective immunity and reduced adverse reactions using LNP, including SS-cleavable and pH-activated lipid-like materials with oleic acid (ssPalmO) as an ionizable lipid (LNPssPalmO). We used mRNA expressing H5N1 subtype high-pathogenicity avian influenza virus-derived hemagglutinin or neuraminidase to generate mRNA-LNP vaccines against H5N1 influenza. Compared with conventional LNP, mRNA-LNPssPalmO induced comparable antigen-specific antibodies and better IFN--producing Th1 responses in mice. Both mRNA-LNPssPalmO and conventional mRNA-LNP conferred strong protection against homologous H5N1 virus challenge. In addition, mRNA-LNPssPalmO showed better cross-protection against heterologous H5N1 virus challenge compared to conventional mRNA-LNPs. Furthermore, we observed that mRNA-LNPssPalmO induced less inflammatory responses (e.g., inflammatory cytokine production and vascular hyperpermeability) and fewer adverse reactions (e.g., weight loss and fever) compared with conventional mRNA-LNP. These results suggest that mRNA-LNPssPalmO would be a safe alternative to conventional vaccines to overcome mRNA-LNP vaccine hesitancy.
Project description:A universal influenza vaccine that elicits a strong and lasting stalk-specific antibody response is advantageous. We utilize nucleoside-modified mRNA in lipid nanoparticles (mRNA-LNP) and unmodified self-amplifying mRNA in modified dendritic nanoparticles (sam-MDNP), expressing chimeric hemagglutinin (cHA) antigens to induce stalk-specific humoral immunity in non-human primates (NHPs) with preexisting influenza virus immunity. mRNA-LNP immunization induces strong stalk-specific binding antibodies, protecting mice from lethal heterologous influenza virus challenges, along with bone marrow plasma cells (BMPC) that persist for up to 8 months. sam-MDNP vaccine induces lower humoral immunity, despite showing strong innate activation. Transcriptomic and cytokine analyses reveal a more persistent induction of interferon responses, IL-1β signaling, and IL-6 production in the mRNA-LNP group, correlating with the induction of serum antibody responses and BMPC. We identify a transcriptional signature associated with induction of BMPC following mRNA vaccination and highlight the utility of cHA-based mRNA-LNP vaccines in inducing persistent stalk-directed protective antibody responses.
Project description:Messenger RNA vaccines based on lipid nanoparticles (mRNA-LNPs) are promising vaccine modalities. However, mRNA-LNP vaccines frequently cause adverse reactions such as swelling and fever in humans, partly due to the inflammatory nature of LNP. Modification of the ionizable lipids used in LNP is one approach to avoid these adverse reactions. Herein, we report the development of mRNA-LNP vaccines with better protective immunity and reduced adverse reactions using LNP, including SS-cleavable and pH-activated lipid-like materials with oleic acid (ssPalmO) as an ionizable lipid (LNPssPalmO). We used mRNA expressing H5N1 subtype high-pathogenicity avian influenza virus-derived hemagglutinin or neuraminidase to generate mRNA-LNP vaccines against H5N1 influenza. Compared with conventional LNP, mRNA-LNPssPalmO induced comparable antigen-specific antibodies and better IFN--producing Th1 responses in mice. Both mRNA-LNPssPalmO and conventional mRNA-LNP conferred strong protection against homologous H5N1 virus challenge. In addition, mRNA-LNPssPalmO showed better cross-protection against heterologous H5N1 virus challenge compared to conventional mRNA-LNPs. Furthermore, we observed that mRNA-LNPssPalmO induced less inflammatory responses (e.g., inflammatory cytokine production and vascular hyperpermeability) and fewer adverse reactions (e.g., weight loss and fever) compared with conventional mRNA-LNP. These results suggest that mRNA-LNPssPalmO would be a safe alternative to conventional vaccines to overcome mRNA-LNP vaccine hesitancy.