VACCINE WITH IMPROVED IMMUNOGENICITY AGAINST MUTANT CORONAVIRUSES

The invention relates to an isolated nucleic acid molecule encoding a variant spike (spike-like) protein of a corona virus or fragment thereof wherein the variant spike protein comprises an amino acid sequence with at least two amino acid differences over SARS-CoV-2 "Wuhan Sequence", and wherein said variant spike protein comprises amino acid differences over SARS-CoV-2 "Wuhan Sequence" from at least two of the B.1.1.7 (alpha-variant), B.1.351 (beta-variant), B.1.1.28 (gamma-variant), B1.617.2 (delta-variant), and C.37 (lambda-variant) spike proteins. The variant comprises an amino acid sequence comprising preferably at least four amino acid differences over SARS-CoV-2 "Wuhan Sequence" being capable of inducing an immunogenic response in a human subject against a human coronavirus and variants thereof. In further aspects, the invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition in the form of a vaccine for use in the prevention and/or reduction of risk of a human coronavirus infection. The invention further relates to the medical use and corresponding methods of administering a vaccine of the invention in the reduction of risk of a human coronavirus infection and/or prevention of a medical condition associated with coronavirus, in particular SARS-COV-2 and SARS-CoV-2 variants.