Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Jan;97(1):e70143.
doi: 10.1002/jmv.70143.

Long-Lasting Protection and Dose Optimization of MPXV Polyvalent Mpox mRNA Vaccines Against Lethal Vaccinia Virus Challenge in Mice

Xia Chuai  1 , Tianxi Ye  1   2 , Baoxin Zhao  1 , Yan Wu  1 , Chen Guo  3 , Fangxu Li  1 , Jinge Zhou  1   2 , Kaiyue Zhang  1 , Yuping Wang  1 , Yanhui Liu  3 , Yalin Xie  3 , Jiancun Zhang  4 , Sandra Chiu  5   6
Affiliations

Long-Lasting Protection and Dose Optimization of MPXV Polyvalent Mpox mRNA Vaccines Against Lethal Vaccinia Virus Challenge in Mice

Xia Chuai et al. J Med Virol. 2025 Jan.

Erratum in

Abstract

The outbreak of clade II monkeypox virus (MPXV) and the additional outbreak in Central Africa of clade I virus from 2023 have attracted worldwide attention. The development of a scalable and effective vaccine against the ongoing epidemic of mpox is urgently needed. We previously constructed two bivalent MPXV mRNA vaccines, LBA (B6R-A29L) and LAM (A35R-M1R), and a quadrivalent mRNA vaccine, LBAAM (B6R-A35R-A29L-M1R). These vaccines at a 20 µg dose could induce potential MPXV antigen-specific immune responses and provide protection against lethal VACV challenge. Compared with the individual bivalent mRNA vaccines, the two quadrivalent vaccines LBAAM and LBA& LAM displayed superior protective effects. To characterize these vaccines further, we monitored long-term immunity and protection as long as 28 weeks after initial immunization and optimized the immunization dosages to decrease the cost of production for future clinical use. Our results demonstrated that both the bivalent MPXV mRNA vaccine LAM (A35R-M1R) and the two tetravalent vaccines LBAAM and LBA& LAM could elicit long-lasting antigen-specific IgG antibodies as well as neutralizing antibodies against VACV and MPXV. They all provided complete protection against VACV challenge until 28 weeks post prime immunization. Moreover, the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of the two tetravalent vaccines (LBAAM and LBA& LAM) are dose dependent, and even the low-dose (1 µg) vaccine could provide sufficient protection against lethal VACV challenge. These results provide valuable clues for the further production of MPXV mRNA vaccines for use in humans.

Keywords: MPXV; dose; long‐term protection; mRNA vaccine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. C. K. Ellis, D. S. Carroll, R. R. Lash, et al., “Ecology and Geography of Human Monkeypox Case Occurrences Across Africa,” Journal of Wildlife Diseases 48, no. 2 (2012): 335–347.
    1. M. Kozlov, “Monkeypox Goes Global: Why Scientists Are on Alert,” Nature 606, no. 7912 (2022): 15–16.
    1. J. B. Nuzzo, L. L. Borio, and L. O. Gostin, “The WHO Declaration of Monkeypox as a Global Public Health Emergency,” Journal of the American Medical Association 328, no. 7 (2022): 615–617.
    1. J. Isidro, V. Borges, M. Pinto, et al., “Phylogenomic Characterization and Signs of Microevolution in the 2022 Multi‐Country Outbreak of Monkeypox Virus,” Nature Medicine 28, no. 8 (2022): 1569–1572.
    1. E. M. Bunge, B. Hoet, L. Chen, et al., “The Changing Epidemiology of Human Monkeypox‐A Potential Threat? A Systematic Review,” PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 16, no. 2 (2022): e0010141.

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources