Invited Speaker Oral Presentation Lorne Infection and Immunity 2023

Dissecting immunity to MVA-MERS-S, a novel vaccine candidate against the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) (#36)

Marylyn Addo 1 2 3 4 , Leonie M Weskamm 1 3 5 , Anahita Fathi 1 3 5 , Matthijs Raadsen 2 , Leonie Mayer 1 3 5 , Asisa Volz 6 , Gerd Sutter 7 , Stephan Becker 8 , Christine Dahlk 1 3 5
  1. Institute for Infection Research and Vaccine Development (IIRVD), University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
  2. Department of Viroscience, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  3. German Centre for Infection Research, Hamburg, Germany
  4. University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany, Hamburg, Germany
  5. Department for Clinical Immunology of Infectious Diseases, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany
  6. Institute of Virology , University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Hanover, Germany
  7. Division of Virology, Department of Veterinary Sciences, Institute for Infectious Diseases and Zoonoses, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
  8. Institute for Virology, Philipps University Marburg, Marburg, Germany

The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) belongs to the group of highly pathogenic beta-coronaviruses that have been identified as priority pathogens by the WHO. Infection may lead to pneumonia and multi-organ failure, and is associated with a case fatality rate of up to 35%. Since its emergence in 2012, MERS-CoV has caused multiple outbreaks and has been exported to 27 countries. However, to date there is no licensed vaccine or specific therapy available. MVA-MERS-S is a novel modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA)-based vaccine candidate against the MERS-CoV encoding for the full spike glycoprotein (S). We report data from two investigator-initiated phase-1 clinical trials (IIT) investigating the safety and immunogenicity of MVA-MERS-S. The candidate vaccine was found to be safe and well-tolerated. Neutralizing and non-neutralizing antibody responses (ADNK, ADCP) and T cell immunity were detectable following MVA-MERS immunization. Vaccine dose and immunization intervals impacted the magnitude of antibody responses. Four immunodominant MERS-CoV-S-specific linear B-cell epitopes were identified using microarrays mapping the proteome of MERS-CoV-S.