No abstract

At the forefront of biopharmaceutical industry, the messenger RNA (mRNA) technology offers a flexible and scalable platform to address the urgent need for world-wide immunization in pandemic situations. This strategic powerful platform has recently been used to immunize millions of people proving both of safety and highest level of clinical efficacy against infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Here we provide preclinical report of COReNAPCIN®; a vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2 infection. COReNAPCIN® is a nucleoside modified mRNA-based vaccine formulated in lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for encoding the full-length prefusion stabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein on the cell surface. Vaccination of C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice and rhesus macaque with COReNAPCIN® induced strong humoral responses with high titers of virus-binding and neutralizing antibodies. Upon vaccination, a robust SARS-CoV-2 specific cellular immunity was also observed in both mice and non-human primate models. Additionally, vaccination protected rhesus macaques from symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection and pathological damage to the lung upon challenging the animals with high viral loads of up to 2 × 108 live viral particles. Overall, our data provide supporting evidence for COReNAPCIN® as a potent vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2 infection for clinical studies.

Aggregation-induced quenching of porphyrin molecules as photosensitizer significantly reduces the quantum yield of the singlet oxygen generation, and it is able to decrease the efficacy of photodynamic therapy. We utilized amphiphilic copolymers in this work to precisely control porphyrin H-type and J-type aggregations in water. The amphiphilic copolymer bearing azobenzene, β-cyclodextrin, and porphyrin was successfully synthesized by the atom transfer radical polymerization technique. The azobenzene and β-cyclodextrin complex, as a host–guest supramolecular interaction, has great potential in the design of light-responsive nanocarriers. The amphiphilic block copolymer can be self-assembled into polymersomes, whose application in the generation of singlet oxygen has been also tested. We further demonstrate that, due to the stable H- and J-aggregates of porphyrin, which act as noncovalent cross-linking points, the structure of polymersomes can be reversible under light-stimulus. This formation method has the advantage of allowing for both the encapsulation of hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecules and release upon external light without any distinguishable changes in the structure. Furthermore, the morphology and particle size distribution of the polymersomes were also investigated by using transition electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, and field emission scanning electron microscopy.

A new copolymer was synthesized via reaction of new pyridine-containing dibromo compound, 2,6-bis(4-bromophenyl)-4-(naphthalen-1-yl) pyridine, with thiophene-based diboronic ester via Suzuki cross-coupling reactions. 2,6-Bis(4-bromophenyl)-4-(naphthalen-1-yl) pyridine was synthesized starting from condensation reactions of 4-bromoacetophenone and 1-naphthaldehyde. The synthesized monomer and polymer were characterized by FT-IR and NMR spectroscopy. The physical properties of the polymer, including solubility and viscosity were studied, and the results showed good solubility and chain growth for polymer. Maximum absorption peak for polymer was 388 nm. The optical band gap energy of the polymers was determined by absorption onset and found to be 2.38 eV for polymer.