Introduction:

Controlling the global COVID-19 pandemic depends, among other measures, on developing preventive vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. Virus infection is mediated by the interaction of the spike glycoprotein trimer, via its receptor binding domain (RBD), with the host’s cellular receptor. Vaccines in use or under development seek to elicit neutralizing antibodies to block virus binding to ACE2 receptor. Antibody response to this domain is an important outcome of immunization and correlates well with viral neutralization.

Methods:

The development and preclinical evaluation of SOBERANA02 was carried out in four fundamental stages: immunogen design; obtaining the RBD viral antigen by recombinant technique; obtaining and characterizing RBDn-TT conjugates, and evaluation of conjugates immunogenicity in laboratory animals.

Results and discussion:

Here we show that macromolecular constructs with recombinant RBD conjugated to tetanus toxoid (TT) induce a potent immune response in laboratory animals. Some advantages of immunization with RBD-TT conjugates include a predominant anti-RBD IgG immune response due to affinity maturation and long-term specific B-memory cells. Conclusions, this result demonstrated the potential of this COVID-19 conjugate vaccine candidate and enabled its advance to clinical evaluation, paving the way for other antiviral conjugate vaccines.

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