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A synthetic consensus anti–spike protein DNA vaccine induces protective immunity against Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus in nonhuman primates

Karuppiah Muthumani1,*, Darryl Falzarano2,*,†, Emma L. Reuschel1, Colleen Tingey1, Seleeke Flingai1, Daniel O. Villarreal1, Megan Wise1, Ami Patel1, Abdullah Izmirly1, Abdulelah Aljuaid1, Alecia M. Seliga1, Geoff Soule3, Matthew Morrow4, Kimberly A. Kraynyak4, Amir S. Khan4, Dana P. Scott5, Friederike Feldmann5, Rachel LaCasse5, Kimberly Meade-White5, Atsushi Okumura6, Kenneth E. Ugen7, Niranjan Y. Sardesai4, J. Joseph Kim4, Gary Kobinger3, Heinz Feldmann2 and David B. Weiner1,‡
- Author Affiliations
1Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, PA 19104, USA.
2Laboratory of Virology, Division of Intramural Research, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Hamilton, MT 59840, USA.
3Special Pathogens Program, University of Manitoba and Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3E 3R2, Canada.
4Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc., Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462, USA.
5Rocky Mountain Veterinary Branch, Division of Intramural Research, NIAID, NIH, Hamilton, MT 59840, USA.
6Department of Microbiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
7Department of Molecular Medicine, University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, Tampa, FL 33612, USA.
?‡Corresponding author. E-mail: [e-mail]
?* These authors contributed equally to this work.
?† Present address: Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization–International Vaccine Centre, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5E3, Canada.
Science Translational Medicine 19 Aug 2015:
Vol. 7, Issue 301, pp. 301ra132
DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aac7462

Emerging vaccines

Public outcry drives vaccine research during outbreaks of emerging infectious disease, but public support for vaccine development dries up when the outbreaks are resolved, frequently leaving promising vaccine candidates sitting on the shelf. DNA vaccines, with their potential for rapid large-scale production, may help overcome this hurdle. Muthumani et al. report the development of a synthetic DNA vaccine against Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) that induces neutralizing antibodies in mice, macaques, and camels—natural hosts of MERS-CoV. Indeed, macaques vaccinated with this DNA vaccine were protected from viral challenge. These promising results support further development of DNA vaccines for emerging infections.
Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science

http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/7/301/301ra132