There is an urgent need for vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) because of the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Among all approaches, a messenger RNA (mRNA)-based vaccine has emerged as a rapid and versatile platform to quickly respond to this challenge. Here, we developed a lipid nanoparticle-encapsulated mRNA (mRNA-LNP) encoding the receptor binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 as a vaccine candidate (called ARCoV). Intramuscular immunization of ARCoV mRNA-LNP elicited robust neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 as well as a Th1-biased cellular response in mice and non-human primates. Two doses of ARCoV immunization in mice conferred complete protection against the challenge of a SARS-CoV-2 mouse-adapted strain. Additionally, ARCoV is manufactured as a liquid formulation and can be stored at room temperature for at least 1 week. ARCoV is currently being evaluated in phase 1 clinical trials.

由于SARS-CoV-2大流行的持续流行，迫切需要2019年抗冠状病毒疾病的疫苗（COVID-19）。在所有方法中，基于信使RNA（mRNA）的疫苗已成为一种快速，多功能的平台，可以快速应对这一挑战。在这里，我们开发了一种脂质纳米颗粒包裹的mRNA（mRNA-LNP），它编码SARS-CoV-2的受体结合域（RBD）作为候选疫苗（称为ARCoV）。肌内免疫ARCoV mRNA-LNP引起了针对SARS-CoV-2的强大中和抗体以及小鼠和非人类灵长类动物的Th1偏向细胞反应。小鼠接受两次剂量的ARCoV免疫可完全抵抗SARS-CoV-2小鼠适应株的攻击。另外，ARCoV被制成液体制剂，可以在室温下保存至少1周。