Rationally Designed Immunogens Enable Immune Focusing Following SARS-CoV-2 Spike Imprinting (preprint)

Eliciting antibodies to surface-exposed viral glycoproteins can generate protective responses that control and prevent future infections. Targeting conserved sites may reduce the likelihood of viral escape and limit spread of related viruses with pandemic potential. Here, we leveraged rational immunogen design to focus humoral responses on conserved epitopes. Using glycan engineering and epitope scaffolding, we directed murine serum antibody responses to conserved receptor binding motif (RBM) and domain (RBD) epitopes in the context of SARS-CoV-2 spike imprinting. Whereas all engineered immunogens elicited a robust SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing serum response, the RBM-focusing immunogens exhibited increased potency against related sarbecoviruses, SARS-CoV, WIV1-CoV, RaTG13-CoV, and SHC014-CoV;structural characterization of representative antibodies defined a conserved epitope. Furthermore, the RBM-focused sera conferred protection against SARS-CoV-2 challenge. Thus, RBM focusing is a promising strategy to elicit breadth across emerging sarbecoviruses without compromising SARS-CoV-2 protection. Broadly, these engineering strategies are adaptable to other viral glycoproteins for targeting conserved epitopes.