MODIFIED VERSION OF COVID SPIKE PROTEIN TO HASTEN VACCINE PRODUCTION

A scientific team at The University of Texas at Austin has successfully redesigned a key protein from the coronavirus and the modification could enable much faster and more stable production of vaccines worldwide, according to the journal Science.

In a story published on July 24, 2020 in the online Science Daily noted that most coronavirus vaccine candidates train the human immune system to recognize a key protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus called the spike protein in order to fight infection. Researchers designed a new version of this protein that, when expressed in cells, produces up to 10 times more protein than that of an earlier synthetic spike protein already in use in multiple COVID-19 vaccines. The team's original version of the spike protein forms the basis of vaccine candidates currently in human clinical trials, including Moderna's mRNA-1273 and Novavax's NVX-CoV2373.

Along with colleagues at the National Institutes of Health, several members of the UT Austin research team also designed the earlier version of the spike protein found in at least two COVID-19 vaccine candidates currently in US clinical trials. "Depending on the type of vaccine, this improved version of the protein could reduce the size of each dose or speed up vaccine production," said Jason McLellan, an associate professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences and senior author of the paper. "Either way, it could mean more patients have access to vaccines faster."

Dubbed HexaPro, the new protein is also more stable than the team's earlier version of the spike protein, which should make it easier to store and transport. It also keeps its shape even under heat stress, during storage at room temperature and through multiple freeze-thaws. Such qualities are desirable in a robust vaccine. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have contributed to the development of the technology through a grant in the interest of making vaccines accessible to people in lower-income countries. Vaccine companies with different platform technologies will have the ability to test and further develop COVID vaccines that use HexaPro. McLellan has also indicated there is interest from partners in extending access to the technology to more than 4-billion people in the developing world.