Scientists continue racing to develop new vaccines and boosters for evolving strains of COVID-19. 3M scientists also have joined in the fight with an adjuvant called 3M-052 – a substance used to boost the immune response and to enhance the efficacy of vaccines. 3M-052 was used in a recent Duke study that showed great promise in the fight against coronavirus variants. The results were published recently in Nature.

The Duke study outlines the need to create measures to protect against future pandemics produced by betacoronaviruses which have caused severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and, currently, SARS-CoV-2. It shows how a protein-based nanoparticle vaccine adjuvanted with 3M-052-Alum elicited cross-neutralizing antibody responses against coronavirus strains, including the U.K., South African and Brazilian variants.

“The data suggests the combination of the protein-based vaccine with the 3M-052 adjuvant could protect against additional variants and also against pre-emerging viruses,” says Mark Tomai, a 3M scientist. “The high neutralizing antibody titers induced by the nanoparticle vaccine + 3M-052 in this study may translate into longer durations of protection.” The 3M-052 adjuvant is being used in numerous preclinical COVID-19 vaccine studies and is showing very promising results.