Back

Epitope-Focused Immunogens Confer Broad Protection against Coronaviruses

Li, M.; Chen, Q.; Seo, J.; Liu, Y.; Peng, F.; Huang, K.; Dai, Z.; Chen, C.; Zhang, Z.; Zhao, J.; Wang, Z.; Yuan, F.; Ma, X.; Martinez, D. R.; Li, D.

2026-08-04 bioengineering
10.64898/2026.08.02.742375 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Variable regions in coronavirus spike dominate antibody responses elicited by infection or conventional vaccination and limit induction of broad neutralization. In contrast, conserved S2 elements, including the stem helix (SH) and fusion peptide proximal region (FPPR), are promising but subdominant targets of protective immunity. Here, we employed computational design to generate de novo epitope-focused immunogens that precisely present the SH and FPPR epitopes. Formulated as combinatorial immunogens, this vaccine elicited consistent serum responses with broad reactivity across known human coronaviruses and induced epitope-specific antibodies with broad neutralizing activity. As a heterologous boost, epitope-focused immunogens protected mice against challenge with phylogenetically distinct coronaviruses, including bat SARS-related RsSHC014-CoV and MERS-CoV, establishing a generalizable strategy for precision immune focusing and advancing universal coronavirus vaccine development.

Matching journals

The top 4 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

1
Nature Communications
○ 5641 papers in training set
Top 3%
31.3%
Similar papers in this journal
2
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
● 2444 papers in training set
Top 4%
8.0%
Similar papers in this journal
3
Science
● 477 papers in training set
Top 0.8%
8.0%
Similar papers in this journal
4
Science Advances
● 1243 papers in training set
Top 2%
7.3%
Similar papers in this journal
50% of probability mass above
5
Advanced Science
○ 286 papers in training set
Top 2%
4.1%
Similar papers in this journal
6
Cell Discovery
○ 57 papers in training set
Top 0.2%
3.3%
7
Science Translational Medicine
● 127 papers in training set
Top 0.8%
2.8%
8
Cell Research
○ 51 papers in training set
Top 0.3%
2.7%
9
Cell Reports
○ 1498 papers in training set
Top 14%
2.7%
10
Cell
○ 431 papers in training set
Top 5%
2.1%
11
Molecular Therapy
○ 81 papers in training set
Top 0.8%
1.9%
12
Nature Medicine
○ 125 papers in training set
Top 1%
1.9%
13
Neuron
○ 337 papers in training set
Top 3%
1.7%
14
Cell Systems
○ 201 papers in training set
Top 3%
1.4%
15
Nature Biomedical Engineering
○ 47 papers in training set
Top 1%
1.3%
16
eLife
● 5828 papers in training set
Top 58%
1.1%
17
Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy
○ 30 papers in training set
Top 0.4%
1.1%
18
Nature
○ 645 papers in training set
Top 8%
1.1%
19
Communications Biology
○ 993 papers in training set
Top 29%
0.9%
20
PLOS Pathogens
● 820 papers in training set
Top 10%
0.6%
21
Nature Chemistry
○ 42 papers in training set
Top 1%
0.6%
22
Protein & Cell
◐ 25 papers in training set
Top 0.6%
0.6%
23
ACS Nano
● 113 papers in training set
Top 2%
0.6%
24
Nature Neuroscience
○ 252 papers in training set
Top 5%
0.6%

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.