Development of a potent mRNA vaccine against porcine epidemic diarrhea virus infection. | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Development of a potent mRNA vaccine against porcine epidemic diarrhea virus infection. Zhonghan Li This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9163932/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) is a highly contagious alphacoronavirus that poses a severe threat to neonatal piglets, often resulting in mortality rates of 80-100%. Despite the availability of inactivated and live attenuated vaccines, these formulations have demonstrated limited efficacy, allowing persistent PEDV circulation and recurrent outbreaks that cause substantial economic losses in the global swine industry. Here, we describe the development of an mRNA vaccine encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles (mRNA-LNP) that expresses a modified PEDV spike protein (S-6P). This vaccine elicits robust immune responses in mice, as well as in adult and neonatal pigs. Furthermore, the S-6P mRNA vaccine surpasses commercial vaccines in inducing PEDV-specific IgG, IgA, and neutralizing antibodies, and outperforms the standard sequential immunization regimen combining inactivated and live attenuated vaccines. It confers strong protection against a highly virulent PEDV GIIa strain (PEDV-WH2) in directly vaccinated piglets, as well as in neonates passively immunized via maternal antibodies from vaccinated sows. Collectively, these findings highlight the potential of mRNA-based vaccines as an innovative and effective platform for controlling lethal viral diseases in animal agriculture. Biological sciences/Microbiology/Vaccines/RNA vaccines Biological sciences/Microbiology/Virology Full Text Additional Declarations Yes there is potential Competing Interest. Patent associated with the study has been filed (NO. ZL 2025 1 1394138.9). The inventors listed on the patent application include Qunlong Li, Ran Li, Haomin Xu, and Xiaoyang He. The current status of the application is granted. All other authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. 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