­The adjuvant combination PVP-AF04 enhances the antibody response towards SARS-CoV antigens

Background

As of 2024, SARS-CoV-2 has caused over 1 million deaths in the United States and more than 7 million worldwide. As the virus continues to mutate, it is important to advance immunization efforts to combat the virus’s effects, especially in vulnerable populations such as the young and the elderly. Adjuvants, ingredients added to vaccines to strengthen the body’s immune response, are one approach to improving vaccine-induced immunity as they can enhance, prolong, and modulate immune responses, particularly in vulnerable populations.

Technology Overview

Researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital Precision Vaccines Program have discovered that the adjuvantation system PVP-Adjuvant Formulation 04 (PVP-AF04), a combination of the STING agonist 2’3’-cGAMP with alhydrogel (alum), enhances the anti-IgG antibody (Ab) response against the SARS-CoV-1 receptor binding domain (RBD) of the spike glycoprotein. The adjuvantation system improves B cell immunity, enhancing the production of the antigen-specific antibody Immunoglobulin G (IgG). The system further enhances the cytokine production of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) such as lymphocytes, monocytes and macrophages for different immune responses. Overall, the adjuvantation system prolongs a protective effect in the subject and increases the rate of an immune response. The combination of the adjuvantation system with the SARS-CoV-2 RBD protein creates a highly immunogenic vaccine and promotes type 1 immunity, indicating a good safety profile.

Benefits

• Maximizes protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2, especially in vulnerable populations such as young and elderly people, prolonging the protective side effects of vaccination and increasing the rate of immune response.
• Enhances the cytokine production of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) such as lymphocytes, monocytes and macrophages for different immune responses
• Enhances B cell immunity, which enhances the production of antigen-specific antibody Immunoglobulin G (IgG)

Applications

• Diseases caused by Betacoronavirus
  • Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) - coronavirus
  • Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) - associated coronavirus-1
  • SARS-CoV-2
• For human neonates, human infants, human adults and elderly humans (65 years plus)
• For human that is immunocompromised, immunosenescent, has a chronic illness, is malnourished, or is frail