MERS Vaccines March 2023

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Vaccines March 2023

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had not approved a Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) vaccine as of March 14, 2023, but several vaccine candidates are conducting clinical trials.

MERS-COV Vaccine Candidates March 2023

BVRS-GamVac-Combi is conducting phase 1/2 clinical studies sponsored by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Health Ministry of the Russian Federation.

VTP-500 (ChAdOx1) MERS-CoV is a vaccine candidate from the University of Oxford that consists of the replication-deficient simian adenovirus vector ChAdOx1 MERS Spike protein antigen. The VTP-500 vaccine is administered as a single administration and with a homologous prime booster.

MVA MERS (Modified Vaccinia virus Ankara) is a vaccine candidate that contains the full-length spike gene of MERS-CoV. Vaccination with MVA-MERS-S had a favorable safety profile without severe adverse events. Homologous prime-boost immunization induced humoral and cell-mediated responses against MERS-CoV. In addition, a dose-effect relationship was demonstrated for reactogenicity but not vaccine-induced immune responses.

The inactivated rabies vectored SARS-CoV-2 S1 vaccine CORAVAX is adjuvanted with MPLA-AddaVax, a TRL4 agonist, induced high levels of neutralizing antibodies and generated a strong Th1-biased immune response.

Avacc 101 vaccine candidate is designed to provide broad protection against SARS-CoV-1, SAR-CoV-2, and MERS-CoV.

Novavax's MERS investigational vaccine was paused at the pre-clinical process.

MERS

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says MERS is a viral respiratory infection, and the zoonotic source of this virus remains unknown. However, since the first report of MERS-CoV infection in 2012, about 2,603 cases with 935 associated fatalities (36%) have been reported from 27 countries in six World Health Organization (WHO) regions. The WHO's latest situation update was published in December 2022.

MERS-CoV News 2023

March 3, 2023 - Abstract: MERS-CoV clade B viruses are found in camelids and humans in the Middle East, but clade C viruses are not. The kinetics by which llamas shed infectious MERS-CoV are similar to those of dromedary camels We provide experimental evidence for the extended shedding of MERS-CoV clade B viruses in llamas, which might explain why they outcompete clade C strains in the Arabian Peninsula.

January 5, 2023 - The Oman IHR-NFP notified the WHO of a case of MERS-CoV in a 60-year-old male from North Batinah Governorate was confirmed. The first ever laboratory-confirmed case of MERS-CoV in Oman was reported in June 2013. Since then, including this new case, Oman has reported 26 cases of MERS-CoV, including seven deaths (CFR 27%).

December 7, 2022 - The journal Nature published an article: Close relatives of MERS-CoV in bats use ACE2 as their functional receptors, that describes MERS-CoV-related viruses that use ACE2 as an entry receptor, underscoring a promiscuity of receptor use and a potential zoonotic threat.

February 24, 2022 - A non-peer-reviewed study: A single dose of the deactivated rabies virus vector COVID-19 vaccine, CORAVAX, is highly efficacious and alleviates lung inflammation in the hamster model. In summary, CORAVAX is a promising dual antigen vaccine candidate for clinical evaluation against SARS-CoV-2 and Rabies virus.

January 31, 2022 - The peer-reviewed journal frontiers in Immunology published an ORIGINAL RESEARCH article: Inactivated Rabies Virus Vectored MERS-Coronavirus Vaccine Induces Protective Immunity in Mice, Camels, and Alpacas. The current results demonstrate that the inactivated rabies virus-vectored MERS-CoV vaccine is safe, efficacious, and can induce robust protective immune responses, representing a promising MERS camelid vaccine candidate and warranting further efficacy study.

January 28, 2022 - The Journal of Microbiology published: the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus vaccine development: updating clinical studies using platform technologies. Platform technologies accelerated COVID-19 vaccine development and can be applied to developing vaccines against other emerging viral diseases.

November 4, 2021 - Vaccitech plc announced the publication in The Lancet Microbe of the first Phase 1 clinical trial conducted in the Middle East evaluating the safety and tolerability of the ChAdOx1 MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome) vaccine candidate.

November 3, 2021 - The Lancet published: Safety and immunogenicity of ChAdOx1 MERS vaccine candidate in healthy Middle Eastern adults (MERS002): an open-label, non-randomized, dose-escalation, phase 1b trial. Results Interpretation: The acceptable safety and immunogenicity data from this phase 1b trial of the ChAdOx1 MERS vaccine candidate in Healthy Middle Eastern adults, combined with previous safety and immunogenicity data from a trial in the U.K., support selecting the ChAdOx1 MERS vaccine for advancement into phase 2 clinical evaluation.

August 4, 2021 - INOVIO announced that the company had dosed the first subject in its Phase 2 trial designed to evaluate INO-4700, its DNA vaccine candidate for the prevention of MERS.

April 14, 2021 - A team of researchers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia studied the antibody responses in 48 human MERS-CoV infection survivors who had variable disease severity in Saudi Arabia. MERS-CoV–specific neutralizing antibodies were detected for six years after postinfection. Choe et al. showed that patients with severe disease had robust MERS-CoV neutralizing antibody titers for one year. Patients with mild disease had waning antibody responses over time.

July 24, 2019 - The Lancet published: Safety and immunogenicity of an anti-Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus DNA vaccine: a phase 1, open-label, single-arm, dose-escalation trial. Interpretation - The GLS-5300 MERS coronavirus vaccine was well tolerated with no vaccine-associated serious adverse events. Immune responses were dose-independent, detected in more than 85% of participants after two vaccinations, and durable through 1 year of follow-up. The data support further development of the GLS-5300 vaccine, including additional studies to test the efficacy of GLS-5300 in a region endemic to MERS coronavirus.