Abstract
The recent spread of clade 2.3.4.4b H5N1 high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) viruses into mammals, despite limited human infections to date, has raised serious public health concerns and highlights the need for rapidly deployable vaccines, such as mRNA-based platforms, to strengthen pandemic preparedness. Here, we evaluated the effectiveness of an mRNA vaccine encoding the HA of NIID-002, a WHO-recommended H5 candidate vaccine virus (CVV) derived from A/Ezo red fox/Hokkaido/1/2022 (clade 2.3.4.4b) against A/Texas/37/2024 (TX37; clade 2.3.4.4b) and A/Cambodia/2311257/2023 (Cam23; clade 2.3.2.1e). The mRNA was formulated with ssPalmO, a low-inflammatory self-degradable ionizable lipid nanoparticle (LNP). BALB/c mice were immunized intramuscularly twice with the mRNA-LNP vaccine containing either 1 μg or 10 μg of H5 HA mRNA. After boosting, strong, dose-dependent serum IgG responses against NIID-002 HA were detected by ELISA. The mice were then challenged with a lethal dose of homologous TX37 or heterologous Cam23. All mice in the 10-μg group survived both challenges, demonstrating robust cross-clade protection. In the 1-μg group, complete protection without significant body weight loss was observed against TX37, whereas partial protection was observed following Cam23 challenge. Viral titers were significantly reduced in multiple tissues of the vaccinated mice compared to the unvaccinated controls. Our findings demonstrate that the NIID-002-HA mRNA vaccine confers protection against homologous and heterologous zoonotic H5N1 strains in a mouse model. This low-inflammatory ssPalmO-LNP platform thus supports safe, rapid vaccine development against emerging H5N1 viruses with pandemic potential.