MERS boasting a 35% death rate places it among the most lethal human coronaviruses that exist. Our company has state-of-the-art facilities and an experienced team of scientists dedicated to providing professional MERS vaccine and therapeutic development solutions.
Introduction to MERS
MERS - Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus most recently suffered by millions started in the year of 2012. Like its predecessors, MERS causes a significant degree of respiratory problems as its name suggests, and targets the older generations or people suffering from uncontrolled chronic ailments. Diagnostics have posed a challenge due to the range of symptoms presented. In mammals MERS-CoV is primarily found in Dromedary camels, further mutations within the human population have made it even more zoonotic. It can be spread with the human population, particularly in confined locations such as hospitals.
Fig.1 Overview of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). (Okba N. M., et al., 2017)
Vaccine Development for MERS
The development of an effective vaccine for MERS has proven to be quite difficult, and multiple avenues to other viruses have been pursued in response. Global efforts towards fighting mers infection focus on the creation of virus-neutralizing antibodies that will block infection, as well as limiting the prevalence of the symptoms.
- Live Attenuated Vaccines: These vaccines use a weakened form of the virus that cannot cause disease but can still stimulate an immune response.
- Inactivated Vaccines: They consist of killed virus particles, thus they pose no risk of causing the disease, making them safe for administration.
- Recombinant Viral Vector Vaccines: These types of vaccines use non-infectious virus particles to incorporate genes from the MERS-CoV, which incite the body to elicit immune response against MERS-CoV.
- DNA Vaccines: Involves the direct introduction of plasmids that encode for MERS-CoV antigens into the host and elicits the immune response.
- Protein-Based Vaccines: These types of vaccines target specific viral proteins such as the spikes proteins aiming to elicit the neutralizing antibodies.
Table 1 MERS vaccine candidates. (Okba N. M., et al., 2017)
| Vaccine Platform |
Vaccine Candidate |
Target Antigen |
Animal Model |
| Live attenuated vaccine |
rMERS-CoV-ΔE |
MERS-CoV |
ND |
| Inactivated whole virus |
Whole inactivated virus (WIV) |
MERS-CoV |
hDPP4 Tg-mice |
| Recombinant Viral vectors |
MVA-S |
S |
Ad/hDPP4-mice |
| DNA Vaccines |
VRC8400-S |
S |
NHP |
| DNA + rProtein |
S DNA (VRC8400-S)/S1 protein |
S/S1 |
NHPs |
| Virus-like particles |
MERS-CoV VLPs |
S,M,E |
NHP |
| Nanoparticle vaccine |
S |
S |
mice |
| Recombinant proteins |
S1 |
S1 |
mice |
Therapeutics Development for MERS
From patients who previously recovered from MERS, specific potent neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) directed towards the S protein of MERS-CoV have been developed which, after testing in animal models have shown to successfully reduce viral loads and improve disease outcomes.
Cell culture and animal studies have been conducted on ribavirin, interferon, and remdesivir, MERS-CoV specific antiviral compounds that already exist. Some of these compounds have shown promise, however, there is still much focus on developing more specific and effective antivirals.
Our Services
Our company has infectious disease R&D experts whose primary focus is to develop effective countermeasures for emerging threats such as MERS-CoV. Our service includes the full range of vaccine and therapeutic development services.
Disease Models
- MERS-CoV Infection Models
- Transgenic hDPP4 Mouse Models
Infection route: intratracheal, intranasal, oral, and ocular
Preclinical Research
- Pharmacodynamics Study Services
- Pharmacokinetics Study Services
- Drug Safety Evaluation Services
- Customized Research Services
Our cutting-edge facilities and seasoned team of scientists are committed to progressing the development of impactful countermeasures against this formidable coronavirus threat. If you are interested in our services, please feel free to contact us.
References
- Okba, Nisreen MA, V. Stalin Raj, and Bart L. Haagmans. "Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus vaccines: current status and novel approaches." Current opinion in virology 23 (2017): 49-58.
- Memish, Ziad A., et al. "Middle East respiratory syndrome." The Lancet 395.10229 (2020): 1063-1077.
All of our services and products are intended for preclinical research use
only and cannot be used to diagnose, treat or manage patients.
