Genetic modification to design a stable yeast-expressed recombinant SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain as a COVID-19 vaccine candidate

Chen, Wen-Hsiang; Wei, Junfei; Kundu, Rakhi Tyagi; Adhikari, Rakesh; Liu, Zhuyun; Lee, Jungsoon; Versteeg, Leroy; Poveda, Cristina; Keegan, Brian; Villar, Maria Jose; de Araujo Leao, Ana C.; Rivera, Joanne Altieri; Gillespie, Portia M.; Pollet, Jeroen; Strych, Ulrich; Zhan, Bin; Hotez, Peter J.; Bottazzi, Maria Elena

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 has now spread worldwide to infect over 110 million people, with approximately 2.5 million reported deaths. A safe and effective vaccine remains urgently needed. METHOD: We constructed three variants of the recombinant receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein (residues 331–549) in yeast as follows: (1) a “wild type” RBD (RBD219-WT), (2) a deglycosylated form (RBD219-N1) by deleting the first N-glycosylation site, and (3) a combined deglycosylated and cysteine-mutagenized form (C538A-mutated variant (RBD219-N1C1)). We compared the expression yields, biophysical characteristics, and functionality of the proteins produced from these constructs. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: These three recombinant RBDs showed similar secondary and tertiary structure thermal stability and had the same affinity to their receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2), suggesting that the selected deletion or mutations did not cause any significant structural changes or alteration of function. However, RBD219-N1C1 had a higher fermentation yield, was easier to purify, was not hyperglycosylated, and had a lower tendency to form oligomers, and thus was selected for further vaccine development and evaluation. GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE: By genetic modification, we were able to design a better-controlled and more stable vaccine candidate, which is an essential and important criterion for any process and manufacturing of biologics or drugs for human use.