Scientists Identify Key Targets for “Universal” Coronavirus Vaccine, Boosting Hope for Future Pandemic Defense
La Jolla, CA – In a significant breakthrough published this week in Cell, researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have pinpointed highly conserved regions within coronaviruses that consistently trigger a robust T cell response across multiple strains – including those yet to emerge.This revelation paves the way for the progress of next-generation vaccines capable of providing broader, more durable protection against a wide range of coronaviruses, perhaps mitigating the impact of future pandemics.
The ongoing threat of evolving viruses like SARS-CoV-2 has underscored the limitations of current vaccines, which primarily focus on generating neutralizing antibodies. While antibodies are crucial for preventing initial infection, they are frequently enough less effective against new variants. This new research highlights the critical role of T cells, a component of the immune system that recognizes infected cells and clears the virus, offering a more stable and long-lasting defense.
“It is important to induce a neutralizing antibody response,” explains LJI researcher Alessandra Grifoni, “But we’ve shown that T cells are much more stable in the context of viral variants, and that is because T cells look at all the proteins of the virus.”
The team, led by Grifoni, leveraged the power of data science and the publicly available Immune epitope Database (IEDB) – a resource maintained by LJI scientists – to analyze data on over 200 coronavirus epitopes (the parts of a virus that trigger an immune response) identified by researchers globally.By comparing these epitopes across different coronaviruses, and utilizing bioinformatic tools including artificial intelligence, they identified conserved regions – areas of the viral genome that remain largely unchanged despite mutations.
these conserved regions, including some within the “spike” protein but also extending beyond it, consistently elicited a strong T cell response. Understanding which of these regions spark the strongest response is key to designing vaccines that can induce broad cross-reactivity.
“the idea is that if a new coronavirus emerges, we might not be able to protect from the infection, but we might be able to protect from hospitalization,” Grifoni stated. This suggests that even if a future coronavirus evades initial antibody defenses, a strong T cell response could prevent severe illness.The research isn’t limited to SARS-CoV-2. Grifoni emphasizes the potential to apply this “research pipeline” to other respiratory viruses like measles, Nipah virus, and enteroviruses, and also viruses causing hemorrhagic fevers like Lassa and Junin. Her lab is already collaborating with research groups exploring applications across diverse viral families.
“We need to fill the knowledge gaps,” Grifoni said, highlighting the ongoing need for thorough data collection and analysis to prepare for future viral threats.
Study details:
Title: Highly conserved Betacoronavirus sequences are broadly recognized by human T cells
Authors: Tertuliano Alves Pereira Neto, Christian Zmaseck, Liliana Avalos, John Sidney, Raphael Trevizani, Elizabeth Phillips, Simon Mallal, April Fraizer, Gene S. Tan, Richard H. Scheuermann, and Alessandro Sette.
Journal: Cell
DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.07.015
* Source: La Jolla Institute for Immunology (https://www.lji.org/news-events/news/post/lji-covid-universal-vaccine-research/)
