Multivalent S2 subunit vaccines provide broad protection against Clade 1 sarbecoviruses in female mice

Peter J. Halfmann, Raj S. Patel, Kathryn Loeffler, Atsuhiro Yasuhara, Lee-Ann Velde, Jie E. Yang, Jordan Chervin, Chloe Troxell, Min Huang, Naiying Zheng, Elizabeth R. Wright, Paul G. Thomas, Patrick C. Wilson, Yoshihiro Kawaoka () and Ravi S. Kane ()
Additional contact information
Peter J. Halfmann: University of Wisconsin
Raj S. Patel: Georgia Institute of Technology
Kathryn Loeffler: Georgia Institute of Technology
Atsuhiro Yasuhara: Weill Cornell Medicine
Lee-Ann Velde: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Jie E. Yang: University of Wisconsin
Jordan Chervin: Weill Cornell Medicine
Chloe Troxell: Weill Cornell Medicine
Min Huang: Weill Cornell Medicine
Naiying Zheng: Weill Cornell Medicine
Elizabeth R. Wright: University of Wisconsin
Paul G. Thomas: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Patrick C. Wilson: Weill Cornell Medicine
Yoshihiro Kawaoka: University of Wisconsin
Ravi S. Kane: Georgia Institute of Technology

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: Abstract The continuing emergence of immune evasive SARS-CoV-2 variants and the previous SARS-CoV-1 outbreak collectively underscore the need for broadly protective sarbecovirus vaccines. Targeting the conserved S2 subunit of SARS-CoV-2 is a particularly promising approach to elicit broad protection. Here, we describe a nanoparticle vaccine displaying multiple copies of the SARS-CoV-1 S2 subunit. This vaccine alone, or as a cocktail with a SARS-CoV-2 S2 subunit vaccine, protects female transgenic K18-hACE2 mice from challenges with Omicron subvariant XBB as well as several sarbecoviruses identified as having pandemic potential including the bat sarbecovirus WIV1, BANAL-236, and a pangolin sarbecovirus. Challenge studies in female Fc-γ receptor knockout mice reveal that antibody-based cellular effector mechanisms play a role in protection elicited by these vaccines. These results demonstrate that our S2-based vaccines provide broad protection against clade 1 sarbecoviruses and offer insight into the mechanistic basis for protection.

Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-55824-y Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-55824-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-55824-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().