Low-inflammatory lipid nanoparticle-based mRNA vaccine elicits protective immunity against H5N1 influenza virus with reduced adverse reactions

Messenger RNA vaccines based on lipid nanoparticles (mRNA-LNPs) are promising vaccine modalities. However, mRNA-LNP vaccines frequently cause adverse reactions such as swelling and fever in humans, partly due to the inflammatory nature of LNP. Modification of the ionizable lipids used in LNPs is one approach to avoid these adverse reactions. Here, we report the development of mRNA-LNP vaccines with better protective immunity and reduced adverse reactions using LNPs, which contain a disulfide (SS)-cleavable bond and pH-activated lipid-like materials with oleic acid (ssPalmO) as an ionizable lipid (LNP_ssPalmO). We used mRNA expressing H5N1 subtype high-pathogenicity avian influenza virus-derived hemagglutinin or neuraminidase to generate mRNA-LNP vaccines against H5N1 influenza. Compared with conventional LNPs, mRNA-LNP_ssPalmO induced comparable antigen-specific antibodies and better interferon-γ (IFN-γ)-producing T helper type 1 responses in mice. Both mRNA-LNP_ssPalmO and conventional mRNA-LNPs conferred strong protection against homologous H5N1 virus challenge. In addition, mRNA-LNP_ssPalmO showed better cross-protection against heterologous H5N1 virus challenge compared with conventional mRNA-LNPs. Furthermore, we observed that mRNA-LNP_ssPalmO induced less-inflammatory responses (e.g., inflammatory cytokine production, vascular hyperpermeability) and fewer adverse reactions (e.g., weight loss, fever) compared with conventional mRNA-LNPs. These results suggest that mRNA-LNP_ssPalmO would be a safe alternative to conventional vaccines to overcome mRNA-LNP vaccine hesitancy.