PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Huajun Zhao
AU  - Yating Yu
AU  - Zhenguang Liu
AU  - Lulu Huang
AU  - Ailu Yang
AU  - Lina Jiao
AU  - Zuchen Song
AU  - Yucan Wang
AU  - Cuiping Bao
AU  - Ruihong Yu
AU  - Lin Yu
AU  - Guan Wang
AU  - Deyi Wang
AU  - Qiuju Han
AU  - Liang Zhang
AU  - Liang Huang
AU  - Jian Zhang
AU  - Yong Yang
AU  - Ang Lin
TI  - An HBV mRNA vaccine with favorable virological suppression and superior immunity
AID  - 10.1101/2022.11.18.517095
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2022.11.18.517095
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/11/20/2022.11.18.517095.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/11/20/2022.11.18.517095.full
AB  - Clinical management of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) virus infection remains a big challenge and urges the development of novel therapeutics to achieve long-term virological control and seroconversion. In this study, we report on the development and evaluation of a highly efficacious therapeutic mRNA vaccine encoding the full-length hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface antigen (HBsAg). In pAAV-HBV1.2 and rAAV8-HBV1.3-transduced CHB mouse models, the HBV mRNA vaccine demonstrated potent therapeutic efficacy indicated by a complete serum viral clearance, a remarkable decline in intrahepatic HBcAg, viral DNA and RNA copies, as well as the induction of robust levels of anti-HBs antibodies, virus-specific T cells and memory B cells. In addition, the HBV mRNA vaccine induced strong innate immune activation, represented by the maturation of CD8α+ and CD103+ cDC1, CD11b+ cDC2, monocytes and neutrophils. Taken together, the HBV mRNA vaccine is a promising therapeutic candidate holding prospect for further development and clinical investigation.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.