Leveraging mRNA platform for the development of vaccines against egg allergy

Abstract

Food allergy has posed a major global health burden due to the rising prevalence and lack of effective prophylactic strategies. During the past decades, allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT) has been used as a disease-modifying therapy for food allergic conditions, but due to the long-term treatment duration, poor patient compliance and unexpected adverse reactions, only a minority of patients benefit from AIT therapy. In this proof-of-concept study, using well-established mRNA platform, we developed mRNA vaccine candidates encoding for the major egg white allergen Gal d2 (also known as ovalbumin) and comprehensively evaluated the prophylactic efficacy against anaphylaxis in a Gal d2-induced allergic mouse model. Two vaccine formulations, Gal d2 mRNA vaccine and Gal d2-IL-10 mRNA vaccine, both demonstrated effective ability in preventing the onset of allergic disease, which is largely attributed to the versatilities of mRNA vaccine in eliciting allergen-blocking antibody, shifting Th2 towards Th1 immunity, as well as in generating peripheral tolerance.