The scale of development activity is also notable. Excluding those vaccines that are already authorized, the Milken Institute’s vaccine tracker lists seven clinical-stage DNA vaccine programs, 11 inactivated virus vaccines, one live-attenuated virus vaccine, eight non-replicating viral vectors, five replicating viral vectors, 19 subunit (portion of the virus) vaccines, five mRNA vaccines and two based on VLPs. The geographical spread of these programs is also wide.
“One particular feature that we are focusing on is thermostability,” says Nick Jackson, head of programs and technology, vaccine R&D, at Oslo-based CEPI, the Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, which has formed the COVAX facility with the World Health Organization and GAVI to supply vaccines to LMICs. “Other vaccine types which are likely to be easier to deliver in LMICs are those which can be self-administered or more easily given—for example, a nasal spray or in a pill form. This would mean that vaccines could be more easily delivered to remote settings and less dependent on access to healthcare sites and personnel.” Drone technology is also being deployed to speed distribution to remote areas—in Ghana, 2.5 million vaccines will be delivered in this way, through a partnership between Zipline, a medical drone delivery firm, the UPS Foundation and the country’s government.
Even before the pandemic arrived, Tübingen, Germany-based CureVac and CEPI were co-developing portable mRNA printing technology, which could rapidly produce hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses in localized settings. “We have a ‘wave 2’ portfolio that we put in place last year,” Jackson says. This remains at the prototype stage, Jackson says. “It really is the ticket for mRNA having a global impact in the future.” CEPI is also “in active discussions” with GreenLight Biosciences, which has developed a low-cost cell-free mRNA production method that relies on harvesting nucleotides from yeast biomass.
In the meantime, new manufacturing partnerships, such as those between Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis and CureVac and between Merck and Johnson & Johnson will add desperately needed production capacity to the global supply.
The new variants are already forcing vaccine developers to retool. AstraZeneca’s chimp adenovirus vector vaccine encoding SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein appeared to be severely compromised in one South African efficacy trial, which prompted the country’s authorities to halt its rollout. Novavax’s saponin-based (Matrix-M)-adjuvanted S-protein nanoparticle vaccine NVX-CoV2373 was also impaired, though not to the same extent, according to one recent independent study. The Pfizer/BioNtech and Moderna vaccines also exhibit a major loss of neutralizing activity against the variant B.1.1.28, first identified in Brazil and Japan.
Although the companies maintain that their respective modified mRNA vaccines still provide adequate protection against variants, they are developing booster shots directed at the B.1.351 variant, first identified in South Africa. Pfizer and BioNtech are also assessing the effect of a third shot in a new study, which will recruit volunteers from their original phase 1 trial. CureVac and London-based GlaxoSmithKline have also disclosed plans to co-develop an mRNA-based vaccine that protects against multiple viral variants.
Further new viral variants are likely to emerge, which for vaccine developers means broadening the range of viral epitopes (portions recognized by immune cells) they target. The first wave of vaccines converged on S protein, generating antibodies and T cells that recognize a portion of the protein called the receptor-binding domain (RBD) to prevent virus from entering host cells. The next-generation vaccines will need to induce immunity that protects across strains and broaden the target viral antigens, the portions of a virus that provoke an immune reaction. To this end, vaccines will need to target highly conserved T cell epitopes on the virus and epitopes that elicit broadly neutralizing antibody responses. Other potential tweaks could ensure a vaccine stimulates mucosal immunity, protects with a single dose or remains stable at room temperature.
Further new viral variants are likely to emerge, which for vaccine developers means broadening the range of viral epitopes (attachment sites) they target. The first wave of vaccines converged on the S protein, generating antibodies and T cells that recognize a portion of the protein called the receptor-binding domain (RBD) to prevent virus from entering host cells. The next-generation vaccines will need to generate immunity that protects across strains and broadens the relevant viral antigens, portions of a virus that provoke an immune reaction. To this end, vaccines will need to target highly conserved T cell epitopes on the virus and epitopes that elicit broadly neutralizing antibody responses. Other potential tweaks could ensure a vaccine stimulates mucosal immunity, protects with a single dose or remains stable at room temperature.
Some of these approaches are now in the clinic. The world’s largest vaccine manufacturer in volume terms, the Serum Institute of India, is in a phase 1/2 trial with a COVID-19 vaccine based on an antigen-delivery method using VLP technology licensed from Oxford, UK-based SpyBiotech. It combines the hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg), which carries the desired payload, with protein conjugation technology to present the spike protein to the immune system.
HBsAg spontaneously forms a VLP, a structure to which it is possible to attach any protein antigen. The technology, developed by SpyBiotech co-founder Mark Howarth at Oxford University, engineers a portion of a protein that helps Streptococcus bacteria bind to hosts to make a peptide tag (SpyTag) of 13 amino acids and a protein partner (SpyCatcher) of 138 amino acids. When the SpyTag and SpyCatcher come into proximity, a stable molecular bond spontaneously forms. The SpyCatcher domain can be embedded in the VLP structure and the SpyTag in any antigen of interest, such as the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Mixing the two together results in consistent, stable VLPs that are richly decorated with antigen.
“Making a VLP from scratch … does take time,” says SpyBiotech co-founder, CEO and CSO Sumi Biswas. But the platform is now in place, and initial clinical data are imminent. “For the next pandemic, you do not have to make the VLP again.”
Another VLP technology based on a computer-designed protein nanoparticle developed at the University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design (IPD) is in early stage trials under a partnership between SK Bioscience of Seongnam, South Korea, and CEPI, which have rights to the technology for COVID-19 vaccine development in non-Western markets. Their COVID-19 vaccine, GBP-510, comprises two protein components: one protein to which the spike protein is fused and another that, when combined with the first, spontaneously forms a VLP structure. “It can be done in a very controlled way, which is very important for vaccine reproducibility,” says CEPI’s Jackson. A single particle can accommodate 60 copies of a target antigen. Mouse data show the structure to be highly immunogenic—capable of producing an immune response—even at low doses. “We believe the neutralizing titer of a VLP is inherently superior to soluble protein approaches,” says Adam Simpson, CEO of Icosavax, which is developing the VLP platform for multiple indications, including COVID-19. “These particles are the proper size for immune trafficking to the lymph nodes.”
A group led by the California Institute of Technology’s Pamela Bjorkman has reported promising immunogenicity data that employ the SpyCatcher/SpyTag system to decorate a protein nanoparticle with multiple antigens. Containing several copies of four to eight different spike-protein RBDs from various human and animal coronaviruses, these structures elicited immune responses in mice and provided protection even against strains that were not represented in the mosaic of antigens carried by the particle. The effects were much stronger than those seen following immunizations with single antigens or with human convalescent plasma. “It’s not that surprising, but it did work really well,” says Caltech PhD student Alex Cohen, first author on the paper.
The group has now started testing its construct against a B.1.351 lineage strain. “From our preliminary data, ours doesn’t appear to go down very much,” says Bjorkman. “The next step will be protection studies.” Data from non-human primates will enable the group to benchmark its construct against existing vaccines. That work is getting under way shortly through a collaboration with Malcom Martin at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. If this approach does yield an effective vaccine, its production would be “trivial” compared with what is entailed in the production of current protein subunit vaccines, Bjorkman says.
Live-attenuated vaccines are, like VLPs, generally highly immunogenic. What’s more, they are also expected to elicit an immune response similar to that mounted against an infection, since all of the viral antigens are present. The Serum Institute of India is also at the forefront of this approach, taking forward a live-attenuated COVID-19 vaccine through a partnership with Codagenix, which has developed techniques to impair viral replication. For its SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, COVI-VAC, Codagenix has introduced 283 silent mutations into the gene encoding the viral spike protein. “Our platform is an algorithm—it’s not a carrier virus, it’s not a VLP,” says CEO and co-founder Robert Coleman. Now in phase 1 trials, COVI-VAC is administered as a single-dose, needle-free intranasal vaccine and can be easily manufactured at scale. Although the effective dose has not been established, Coleman estimates it could yield “about 50 doses per milliliter.”
Using a similar approach, Meissa Vaccines employs respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), rather than SARS-CoV-2 itself, as a carrier to present the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to the immune system. Its candidate vaccine is also nasally administered in a single dose and is designed to elicit a mucosal, as well as a systemic, response. “We have the potential to block transmission and, I would say, be part of the endgame,” says CEO and founder Marty Moore. A phase 1 study is due to get underway shortly. A similar construct for preventing RSV infection has already completed two phase 1 studies. “What’s really unique about this vaccine is that the safety is pristine,” he says. Manufacturing will also be cheap. “We’re talking pennies a dose,” he says.
A vaccine in tablet form would substantially ease production and distribution challenges, particularly in low-resource settings. Vaxart is among the first to take an oral COVID-19 vaccine into the clinic. “Making the vaccine is only part of the problem,” says CSO and founder Sean Tucker. “The rate-limiting step will be how fast can you put it in people’s arms.” Preliminary phase 1 data indicate that Vaxart’s vaccine, which consists of an engineered adenovirus encoding both SARS-CoV-2’s spike and and nucleocapsid proteins, elicits a strong T cell response, which could provide long-term protection. The vaccine was less effective in producing a systemic antibody response, however.
Eliciting a strong T cell response is also the focus for Oxford, UK-based Emergex. Its approach is based on a painstaking process of identifying viral epitopes that are the target of the early T cell response. “The T cell response in convalescent blood is not the same as the T cell response you use to get rid of COVID-19,” says CEO and co-founder Thomas Rademacher. Emergex is developing a synthetic peptide-based vaccine designed to generate T cells that recognize viral peptides generated early in the infection cycle. The company aims to begin clinical trials in the United States, Europe and Brazil, where it has a partnership with the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation of Rio de Janeiro, an established vaccine research institute.
Whether the pipeline of next-generation COVID-19 vaccines will be needed is as yet unclear, given the uncertainties surrounding the level of protection the current vaccines provide against the main pandemic strains and the emerging variants. Real-world data from those countries furthest advanced in their immunization programs will help to clear up some of the uncertainties. In the meantime, the continued flow of financing for these projects will be vital to place the most promising technologies on a firmer footing. The resounding success of the mRNA vaccines was built on decades of investment—but the solution to bringing this deeply damaging pandemic to an end is likely to require a much broader set of different vaccine platforms that neutralize a broad set of viral variants and work throughout the world in countries with varying abilities to pay.
This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on March 17 2021.
No comments:
Post a Comment