Trivalent SARS-CoV-2 virus-like particle vaccines exhibit broad-spectrum neutralization and protection against XBB.1 and BA.2.86 variants

Dear Editor,The newly emerged severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2)Omicron subvariants(XBB.1,EG.5 and JN.1)and sublineages have been circulating globally with superior growth advantages over other Omicron variants(Tamura et al.,2023).However,second-generation vaccines,including the BA.2 or BA.5 bivalent vaccine boosters,did not produce robust neutralization against the newly emerged XBB.1 or EG.5(Zou et al.,2023).Compared with variants BA.2 and BA.5,XBB.1 carries more mutations in the receptor binding domain(RBD)and exhibits significant immune evasion(Wang et al.,2023b).XBB.1 and its descendent lineages have rapidly become the dominant SARS-CoV-2 strain and are causing the next global wave of COVID-19.Therefore,it is essential to develop an updated vaccine against the newly emerged SARS-CoV-2 variants.

High-precision multi-focus laser sculpting of microstructured glass

Precision sculpting of glass with defined surface microstructures is vital due to the miniaturization and integration of glass-based devices,while it is still challenging as the high brittleness of glass.We here create a three-dimensional multifocus laser for glass micro-sculpting through a beam-shaping technology based on the superposition of lens and grating phase diagrams.The multi-focus laser modification in tandem with chemical etching enables the fabrication of glass microstructures with highly adjustable profiles.Refractive-index-induced deviations are migrated via algorithm correction to ensure multi-focus positional accuracy.Energy un-uniformity due to equidistant laser spots arrangement is eliminated through their coordinate randomization following the target profiles.Finally,uniform laser spots with a proper point-topoint distance create connected cracks inside glass,enabling efficient etching with enhanced rates along the modified profile and the fabrication of surface microstructures.We demonstrate diverse groove arrays with profiles of trapezoid,semicircle,and triangle,revealing low roughness around 1.3μm,a high depth-width ratio of 3:1,and depth up to 300μm,which underscore broad applications such as fiber packaging.

A pan-coronavirus peptide inhibitor prevents SARS-CoV-2 infection in mice by intranasal delivery

Coronaviruses(Co Vs)have brought serious threats to humans,particularly severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-Co V-2),which continually evolves into multiple variants.These variants,especially Omicron,reportedly escape therapeutic antibodies and vaccines,indicating an urgent need for new antivirals with pan-SARS-Co V-2 inhibitory activity.We previously reported that a peptide fusion inhibitor,P3,targeting heptad repeated-1(HR1)of SARS-Co V-2 spike(S)protein,could inhibit viral infections.Here,we further designed multiple derivatives of the P3 based on structural analysis and found that one derivative,the P315V3,showed the most efficient antiviral activity against SARS-Co V-2 variants and several other sarbecoviruses,as well as other human-Co Vs(HCo Vs).P315V3 also exhibited effective prophylactic efficacy against the SARS-Co V-2 Delta and Omicron variants in mice via intranasal administration.These results suggest that P315V3,which is in PhaseⅡclinical trial,is promising for further development as a nasal pan-SARS-Co V-2 or pan-Co Vs inhibitor to prevent or treat CoV diseases.

Antigenic characterization of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants XBB.1.5,BQ.1,BQ.1.1,BF.7 and BA.2.75.2

Dear Editor,Recently,a number of new Omicron subvariants related to BA.4/5 and BA.2.75 have emerged and shown remarkable antibody evasion capacities,in particular BF.7,BQ.1,BQ.1.1,BA.2.75.2,XBB and XBB.1.5.1 Unsurprisingly,these new subvariants are quickly gaining prevalence worldwide.In fact,some of them have outcompeted BA.5 in the USA according to CDC’s national genomic surveillance data in which,as of 6th February 2023,XBB.1.5,BQ.1.1,BQ.1,XBB and BF.7 have achieved a dominance of 66.4%,19.9%,7.3%,2.3%and 0.5%in the USA,as compared to 0.5%for BA.5.In this report,using plasma samples collected from individuals following different vaccination strategies and COVID-19 convalescent donors,we performed pseudoviral neutralization assays to confirm severe reductions in neutralization titers against BF.7,BQ.1,BQ.1.1,BA.2.75.2,XBB and XBB.1.5 in comparison to other Omicron sub-lineages.XBB and XBB.1.5 were shown to be remarkably resistant to plasma neutralization in all tested cohorts.By comparing the differential neutralization profiles,we found that a heterologous booster with an aerosolized vaccine following 2 doses of inactivated vaccine seemed to be superior to other vaccination strategies.

Structural characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron lineages BA.1 and BA.2 virions

Dear Editor,Variants of concern(VOCs)of SARS-CoV-2 have increased transmissibility,virulence,and resistance.The emergence of new VOCs continues to pose great challenges to public health.The detailed structures of the intact Omicron viruses remain unveiled.In this study,we report the architecture of both Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 lineages using cryo-electron tomography(cryo-ET).The subtomogram averaging of viral spikes,in both pre-fusion and postfusion conformations are also investigated.