Developing mRNA vaccines to fight viral diseases in Atlantic salmon

Viral diseases present as great a challenge to fish as to humans. Farmed fish are at particular risk for viral diseases due to intensive rearing practices and high stocking densities. Despite 455 million annual salmon vaccinations in Norway, about 10% of the production is lost due to viral infections. Since currently available vaccines against intracellular pathogens such as viruses do not provide adequate protection in fish, and vaccines for certain diseases do not exist, new vaccine strategies are urgently needed. New and improved vaccines will contribute to several of UN sustainable development goals (USGs) by improving health (USG 3), contributing to more sustainable practices and higher production in the aquaculture industry (USG 2 and USG 14), as well as industry innovation (USG 9). In this project, we will develop a mRNA-based vaccine strategy in salmon. The primary objective of our project is to develop mRNA vaccine for salmon that strongly elicit both humoral and cellular adaptive responses. As no mRNA vaccine for salmon (or other fish species) is currently available, this project can lay the foundation for a new era in fish vaccinology. In addition, it is important to note that the mRNA strategy is not limited to production of vaccine antigens, it can be used to generate other proteins of interest, and the project will thus have implications beyond vaccinology. We will optimize mRNA delivery to salmon cells by formulating better transfection reagents than those commercially available and optimize the mRNA design and synthesis for maximum protein production by increasing stability and translation efficiency. Furthermore, we will test immunogenicity of the mRNA vaccines both in vitro and in vivo following vaccination and decipher the subtypes of cells involved in the vaccine responses.

Viral diseases present as great a challenge to fish as to humans. Farmed fish are at particular risk for viral diseases due to intensive rearing practices and high stocking densities. Despite 455 million annual salmon vaccinations in Norway, about 10% of the production is lost due to viral infections. Since currently available vaccines against intracellular pathogens such as viruses do not provide adequate protection in fish, and vaccines for certain diseases do not exist, new vaccine strategies are urgently needed. New and improved vaccines will contribute to several of UN sustainable development goals (USGs) by improving health (USG 3), contributing to more sustainable practices and higher production in the aquaculture industry (USG 2 and USG 14), as well as industry innovation (USG 9). In this project, we will develop a mRNA-based vaccine strategy in salmon. The primary objective of our project is to develop mRNA vaccine for salmon that strongly elicit both humoral and cellular adaptive responses. As no mRNA vaccine for salmon (or other fish species) is currently available, this project can lay the foundation for a new era in fish vaccinology. In addition, it is important to note that the mRNA strategy is not limited to production of vaccine antigens, it can be used to generate other proteins of interest, and the project will thus have implications beyond vaccinology. We will optimize mRNA delivery to salmon cells by formulate better transfection reagents than those commercially available and optimize the mRNA design and synthesis for maximum protein production by increasing stability and translation efficiency. Furthermore, we will test immunogenicity of the mRNA vaccines both in vitro and in vivo following vaccination and decipher the subtypes of cells involved in the vaccine responses.