Lin Kangyang, Cao Han, Luan Ning, Wang Yunfei, Hu Jingping, Liu Cunbao
Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Kunming 650118, China.
Vaccines (Basel). 2023 May 20;11(5):1003. doi: 10.3390/vaccines11051003.
Previous studies have shown that the herpes zoster subunit vaccine Shingrix™ performs well in clinical trials. However, the key ingredient in its adjuvant, QS21, is extracted from rare plants in South America, so vaccine production is limited. Compared with subunit vaccines, mRNA vaccines have the advantages of faster production and not requiring adjuvants, but currently, there is no authorized mRNA vaccine for herpes zoster. Therefore, this study focused on herpes zoster subunit and mRNA vaccines. We prepared a herpes zoster mRNA vaccine and compared the effects of vaccine type, immunization route, and adjuvant use on vaccine immunological efficacy. The mRNA vaccine was injected directly into mice via subcutaneous or intramuscular injection. The subunit vaccine was mixed with adjuvants before immunization. The adjuvants include B2Q or alum. B2Q is BW006S + 2395S + QS21. BW006S and 2395S are phosphodiester CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (CpG ODNs). Then, we compared the cell-mediated immunity (CIM) and humoral immunity levels of the different groups of mice. The results showed that the immune responses of mice inoculated with the mRNA vaccine prepared in this study were not significantly different from those of mice inoculated with the protein subunit vaccine supplemented with the B2Q. The mRNA vaccine-induced immune responses following subcutaneous or intramuscular injection, and the different immunization routes did not lead to significant differences in immune response intensity. Similar results were also observed for the protein subunit vaccine adjuvanted with B2Q but not alum. The above results suggest that our experiment can provide a reference for the preparation of mRNA vaccines against herpes zoster and has certain reference significance for the selection of the immunization route; that is, there is no significant difference in the immune response caused by subcutaneous versus an intramuscular injection, so the injection route can be determined according to the actual situation of individuals.
先前的研究表明，带状疱疹亚单位疫苗Shingrix™在临床试验中表现良好。然而，其佐剂中的关键成分QS21是从南美洲的稀有植物中提取的，因此疫苗产量有限。与亚单位疫苗相比，mRNA疫苗具有生产速度更快且无需佐剂的优点，但目前尚无获批的用于带状疱疹的mRNA疫苗。因此，本研究聚焦于带状疱疹亚单位疫苗和mRNA疫苗。我们制备了一种带状疱疹mRNA疫苗，并比较了疫苗类型、免疫途径和佐剂使用对疫苗免疫效果的影响。mRNA疫苗通过皮下或肌肉注射直接注入小鼠体内。亚单位疫苗在免疫前与佐剂混合。佐剂包括B2Q或明矾。B2Q是BW006S + 2395S + QS21。BW006S和2395S是磷酸二酯CpG寡脱氧核苷酸（CpG ODNs）。然后，我们比较了不同组小鼠的细胞介导免疫（CIM）和体液免疫水平。结果表明，接种本研究制备的mRNA疫苗的小鼠的免疫反应与接种补充了B2Q的蛋白质亚单位疫苗的小鼠的免疫反应无显著差异。皮下或肌肉注射后，mRNA疫苗诱导的免疫反应，以及不同的免疫途径并未导致免疫反应强度的显著差异。对于用B2Q而非明矾佐剂的蛋白质亚单位疫苗也观察到了类似结果。上述结果表明，我们的实验可为抗带状疱疹mRNA疫苗的制备提供参考，对免疫途径的选择具有一定的参考意义；即皮下注射与肌肉注射引起的免疫反应无显著差异，因此可根据个体实际情况确定注射途径。
