A Lymph Node Targeted Amphiphile Vaccine Induces Potent Cellular and Humoral Immunity to SARS-CoV-2

Elicio Therapeutics Martin P. Steinbuck, Lochana M. Seenappa, Aniela Jakubowski, Lisa K. McNeil, Christopher M. Haqq, Peter C. DeMuth The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic’s public health, economic, and social impacts mandate urgent development of effective vaccines to contain or eradicate infection. To that end, we evaluated a novel amphiphile (AMP) vaccine adjuvant, AMP-CpG, composed of diacyl lipid-modified CpG, admixed with the SARS-CoV-2 Spike-2 receptor binding domain (Spike RBD) protein for immunization (ELI 005) in two mouse models. AMP immunogens are efficiently delivered to lymph nodes, where innate and adaptive immune responses are generated.