PRAK-03202: A triple antigen virus-like particle vaccine candidate against SARS CoV-2

Mazumder, Saumyabrata; Rastogi, Ruchir; Undale, Avinash; Arora, Kajal; Arora, Nupur Mehrotra; Pratim, Biswa; Kumar, Dilip; Joseph, Abyson; Mali, Bhupesh; Arya, Vidya Bhushan; Kalyanaraman, Sriganesh; Mukherjee, Abhishek; Gupta, Aditi; Potdar, Swaroop; Roy, Sourav Singha; Parashar, Deepak; Paliwal, Jeny; Singh, Sudhir Kumar; Naqvi, Aelia; Srivastava, Apoorva; Singh, Manglesh Kumar; Kumar, Devanand; Bansal, Sarthi; Rautray, Satabdi; Saini, Manish; Jain, Kshipra; Gupta, Reeshu; Kundu, Prabuddha Kumar

The rapid development of safe and effective vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV-2) is a necessary response to coronavirus outbreak. Here, we developed PRAK-03202, the world's first triple antigen virus-like particle vaccine candidate, by cloning and transforming SARS-CoV-2 gene segments into a highly characterized S. cerevisiae-based D-Cryptâ„¢ platform, which induced SARS CoV-2 specific neutralizing antibodies in BALB/c mice. Immunization using three different doses of PRAK-03202 induced an antigen-specific (spike, envelope, and membrane proteins) humoral response and neutralizing potential. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from convalescent patients showed lymphocyte proliferation and elevated interferon levels suggestive of epitope conservation and induction of T helper 1-biased cellular immune response when exposed to PRAK-03202. These data support further clinical development and testing of PRAK-03202 for use in humans.