An mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2: Lyophilized, liposome-based vaccine candidate EG-COVID induces high levels of virus neutralizing antibodies

Hong, H. Christian; Kim, Kwang Sung; Park, Shin Ae; Chun, Min Jeong; Hong, Eun Young; Chung, Seung Won; Kim, Hyun Jong; Shin, Byeong Gyu; Braka, Abdennour; Thanappan, Jayaraman; Jang, Sunghoon; Wu, Sangwwok; Cho, Yang Je; Kim, Seok-Hyun

In addition to the traditional method of vaccine development, the mRNA coronavirus vaccine, which is attractive as a challenging vaccination, recently opened a new era in vaccinology. Here we describe the EG-COVID which is a novel liposome-based mRNA candidate vaccine that encodes the spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2 with 2P-3Q substitution in European variant. We developed the mRNA vaccine platform that can be lyophilized using liposome-based technology. Intramuscular injection of the EG-COVID elicited robust humoral and cellular immune response to SARS-CoV-2. Furthermore, sera obtained from mice successfully inhibited SARS-CoV-2 viral infection into Vero cells. We developed EG-COVID and found it to be effective based on in vitro data, and we plan to initiate a clinical trial soon. Since EG-COVID is a lyophilized mRNA vaccine that is convenient for transportation and storage, accessibility to vaccines will be significantly improved.