Hydrogel/Polymersome-based Subunit Vaccines in the Fight Against COVID-19

Project Information

HYPOVACC

Grant agreement ID: 101030481

DOI

10.3030/101030481

Project terminated on 31 January 2024

EC signature date 22 March 2021

Start date 1 June 2021

End date 31 January 2025

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 257 619,84

EU contribution

€ 257 619,84

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITE DE BORDEAUX
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - HYPOVACC (Hydrogel/Polymersome-based Subunit Vaccines in the Fight Against COVID-19)

Reporting period: 2023-06-01 to 2024-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The development of effective vaccine technologies for the fight against severe infectious diseases has been one of the most successful global health interventions in history. Yet, the threat of future and ongoing pandemics arisen from viruses such as the SARS-CoV-2 virus complexifies the design of readily applicable vaccine formulations. Over the last three years, the COVID-19 pandemic has quickly evolved with the emergence of multiple variants, including the immune evasive variant Omicron that can escape the immune response and participates in reducing vaccine effectiveness. To face the overall challenges of the pandemic, Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccines have been authorized for emergency use. While this technology is revolutionary, it suffers from strict storage conditions as well as lack of protection over long timescales and against variants, which lead to burdensome vaccination schedules as well as expensive manufacturing and distribution. There is therefore a need for more protective, potent, and easily manufacturable vaccines to enhance immunity and decrease the burden of patient compliance.
The project HYPOVACC aims to overcome these issues by designing cost-effective vaccine systems able to effectively protect against a variety of viruses belonging to the family of coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV-2 or potential future related viruses. These efforts envision to decrease the cost of manufacturing/distribution, and number of vaccinations, reinforcing therefore worldwide vaccine equity and patient compliance.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

We successfully designed vaccine delivery systems able to significantly enhance the protection against the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant as well as other coronaviruses in a same vaccine formulation. Short-term and long-term protection over several months have been validated in rodents.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The HYPOVACC project outperforms the state of start through the design of potent vaccine delivery systems for enhancing the protection against current and future coronaviruses. More importantly, this newly designed vaccine formulation is easily formed with cost-effective and clinically approved materials, reinforcing its translation into the clinic. Moreover, this system can be easily modulated to be applied to a variety of challenging infectious diseases such as HIV, malaria, or flu, participating therefore in the reinforcement of Global Health research.

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