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Multivalent Vaccine to Provide Sterilizing Immunity Against COVID-19

Grant number: unknown

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Key facts

  • Disease

    COVID-19

  • Start & end year

    N/A

  • Funder

    University of Minnesota

  • Principal Investigator

    PhD. Mythili Dileepan

  • Research Location

    United States of America

  • Lead Research Institution

    College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota

  • Research Priority Alignment

    N/A

  • Research Category

    Vaccines research, development and implementation

  • Research Subcategory

    Pre-clinical studies

  • Special Interest Tags

    N/A

  • Study Type

    Non-Clinical

  • Clinical Trial Details

    N/A

  • Broad Policy Alignment

    Pending

  • Age Group

    Not Applicable

  • Vulnerable Population

    Not applicable

  • Occupations of Interest

    Not applicable

Abstract

Social distancing can help deter some of COVID-19's spread, but the development of a vaccine is the only surefire way to combat this devastating disease. Virus-like particles (VLPs) are multi-protein structures that mimic the organization and conformation of authentic native viruses but lack the viral genome and therefore are noninfectious. Some of the successful prophylactic VLP-based vaccines currently available are for hepatitis B and human papillomavirus. Led by Mythili Dileepan, PhD, research associate, Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, this study will develop a new multivalent VLP that contains the viral spike (S) protein and three other structural proteins (membrane M, nucleocapsid N, and envelope E) of the SARS-CoV-2 to provide sterilizing protective immunity against COVID-19. "We hypothesize that this new VLP is superior to monovalent vaccines as it can minimize the evolution of potential vaccine-escaped virus mutants," said Dileepan.