Could SARS-CoV-1 Vaccines in the Pipeline Have Contributed to Fighting the COVID-19 Pandemic? Lessons for the Next Coronavirus Plague

Overview

Journal Biomedicines

Specialty Biomedical Engineering

Date 2024 Jan 23

PMID 38255169

Authors

Daniel Lopez

Marina Garcia-Peydro

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 caused the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, which, to date, has resulted in more than 800 million confirmed cases and 7 million deaths worldwide. The rapid development and distribution (at least in high-income countries) of various vaccines prevented these overwhelming numbers of infections and deaths from being much higher. But would it have been possible to develop a prophylaxis against this pandemic more quickly? Since SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the subgenus sarbecovirus, with its highly homologous SARS-CoV-1, we propose here that while SARS-CoV-2-specific vaccines are being developed, phase II clinical trials of specific SARS-CoV-1 vaccines, which have been in the pipeline since the early 20th century, could have been conducted to test a highly probable cross-protection between SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2.

Citing Articles

Bioinformatic Tools for Studying the Cellular Immune Response to SARS-CoV-2, Vaccine Efficacy, and Future Pandemics at the Global Population Level.

Lopez D, Zumarraga J Int J Mol Sci. 2025; 25(24.

PMID: 39769240 PMC: 11678114. DOI: 10.3390/ijms252413477.

References

. Trial watch: SARS vaccine enters Phase I trials. Expert Rev Vaccines. 2004; 3(4):386. View

Lopez D . Predicted HLA Class I and Class II Epitopes From Licensed Vaccines Are Largely Conserved in New SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant of Concern. Front Immunol. 2022; 13:832889. PMC: 8831693. DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.832889. View

Lin J, Zhang J, Su N, Xu J, Wang N, Chen J . Safety and immunogenicity from a phase I trial of inactivated severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus vaccine. Antivir Ther. 2007; 12(7):1107-13. View

Ahmed S, Sohail M, Quadeer A, McKay M . Vaccinia-Virus-Based Vaccines Are Expected to Elicit Highly Cross-Reactive Immunity to the 2022 Monkeypox Virus. Viruses. 2022; 14(9). PMC: 9506226. DOI: 10.3390/v14091960. View

Koch T, Dahlke C, Fathi A, Kupke A, Krahling V, Okba N . Safety and immunogenicity of a modified vaccinia virus Ankara vector vaccine candidate for Middle East respiratory syndrome: an open-label, phase 1 trial. Lancet Infect Dis. 2020; 20(7):827-838. PMC: 7172913. DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30248-6. View

Lopez D, Lorente E, Barriga A, Johnstone C, Mir C . Vaccination and the TAP-independent antigen processing pathways. Expert Rev Vaccines. 2013; 12(9):1077-83. DOI: 10.1586/14760584.2013.825447. View

Bisht H, Roberts A, Vogel L, Bukreyev A, Collins P, Murphy B . Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus spike protein expressed by attenuated vaccinia virus protectively immunizes mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004; 101(17):6641-6. PMC: 404098. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0401939101. View

Barquet N, Domingo P . Smallpox: the triumph over the most terrible of the ministers of death. Ann Intern Med. 1997; 127(8 Pt 1):635-42. DOI: 10.7326/0003-4819-127-8_part_1-199710150-00010. View

Martin J, Louder M, Holman L, Gordon I, Enama M, Larkin B . A SARS DNA vaccine induces neutralizing antibody and cellular immune responses in healthy adults in a Phase I clinical trial. Vaccine. 2008; 26(50):6338-43. PMC: 2612543. DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2008.09.026. View

10.

Martin-Galiano A, Diez-Fuertes F, McConnell M, Lopez D . Predicted Epitope Abundance Supports Vaccine-Induced Cytotoxic Protection Against SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern. Front Immunol. 2021; 12:732693. PMC: 8656262. DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.732693. View

11.

Marzi A, Ebihara H, Callison J, Groseth A, Williams K, Geisbert T . Vesicular stomatitis virus-based Ebola vaccines with improved cross-protective efficacy. J Infect Dis. 2011; 204 Suppl 3:S1066-74. PMC: 3203393. DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jir348. View

12.

Li J, Ulitzky L, Silberstein E, Taylor D, Viscidi R . Immunogenicity and protection efficacy of monomeric and trimeric recombinant SARS coronavirus spike protein subunit vaccine candidates. Viral Immunol. 2013; 26(2):126-32. PMC: 3624630. DOI: 10.1089/vim.2012.0076. View

13.

Dangi T, Palacio N, Sanchez S, Park M, Class J, Visvabharathy L . Cross-protective immunity following coronavirus vaccination and coronavirus infection. J Clin Invest. 2021; 131(24). PMC: 8670840. DOI: 10.1172/JCI151969. View

14.

Manenti A, Solfanelli N, Cantaloni P, Mazzini L, Leonardi M, Benincasa L . Evaluation of Monkeypox- and Vaccinia virus-neutralizing antibodies in human serum samples after vaccination and natural infection. Front Public Health. 2023; 11:1195674. PMC: 10321151. DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1195674. View

15.

Cao W, He S, Liu G, Schulz H, Emeterio K, Chan M . The rVSV-EBOV vaccine provides limited cross-protection against Sudan virus in guinea pigs. NPJ Vaccines. 2023; 8(1):91. PMC: 10257645. DOI: 10.1038/s41541-023-00685-z. View

16.

Watson O, Barnsley G, Toor J, Hogan A, Winskill P, Ghani A . Global impact of the first year of COVID-19 vaccination: a mathematical modelling study. Lancet Infect Dis. 2022; 22(9):1293-1302. PMC: 9225255. DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00320-6. View

17.

He Y, Li J, Heck S, Lustigman S, Jiang S . Antigenic and immunogenic characterization of recombinant baculovirus-expressed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus spike protein: implication for vaccine design. J Virol. 2006; 80(12):5757-67. PMC: 1472569. DOI: 10.1128/JVI.00083-06. View

18.

Hosseini R, Askari N . A review of neurological side effects of COVID-19 vaccination. Eur J Med Res. 2023; 28(1):102. PMC: 9959958. DOI: 10.1186/s40001-023-00992-0. View

19.

Xiong Q, Cao L, Ma C, Tortorici M, Liu C, Si J . Close relatives of MERS-CoV in bats use ACE2 as their functional receptors. Nature. 2022; 612(7941):748-757. PMC: 9734910. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05513-3. View

20.

Selvaraj G, Kaliamurthi S, Peslherbe G, Wei D . Are the Allergic Reactions of COVID-19 Vaccines Caused by mRNA Constructs or Nanocarriers? Immunological Insights. Interdiscip Sci. 2021; 13(2):344-347. PMC: 8140554. DOI: 10.1007/s12539-021-00438-3. View