Middle East respiratory syndrome: current status and future prospects for vaccine development

Abstract

The outbreaks of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) previously in Middle East and recently in South Korea have raised serious concerns world-wide, reinforcing the importance of developing effective and safe vaccines against MERS-coronavirus (MERS-CoV). A number of vaccine candidates have been developed on the basis of viral vectors, recombinant proteins, DNAs, nanoparticles, and recombinant MERS-CoV, and some of them have shown efficacy in laboratory animals. However, the paucity of financial support has made it difficult to transfer effective candidates from the preclinical stage to clinical trials. Here, we summarize currently available MERS vaccine candidates and illustrate strategies for future development, with the aim of provoking government agencies and Big Pharma to invest more funds for developing efficacious and safe MERS vaccines.

The recombinant N-terminal domain of spike proteins is a potential vaccine against Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection

“…Whether this was the result of a memory response need further study. Additionally, the limitations of the animal models restricted the assessment of the protective efficacy of rNTD vaccine in mice [37]. The MERS-CoV infection animal model used in this study was developed by transducing mice with an adenovirus vector expressing human DPP4 [31].…”

SARS and MERS: recent insights into emerging coronaviruses

“…Several vaccination strategies were developed against SARS-CoV and tested in animals, such as an inactivated virus, a live-attenuated virus, viral vectors, subunit vaccines, recombinant proteins and DNA vaccines 135,136 . Similar approaches have been used for the development of experimental MERS-CoV vaccines 137 . To date, three MERS-CoV vaccines have been evaluated in non-human primates.…”

Measures for diagnosing and treating infections by a novel coronavirus responsible for a pneumonia outbreak originating in Wuhan, China

“…Most CoVs share a similar viral structure, similar infection pathway, and a similar structure of the S proteins [41], suggesting that similar research strategies should also be applicable for the 2019-nCoV. For example, the study of MERS-CoV vaccines was accelerated by virtue of strategies that had been established for SARS-CoV [42]. It has been reported that the 2019-nCoV is also genetically close to SARS-CoV [43,44].…”