Rapid response vaccines

This invention ( US patent 12,435,317 B2, issued Oct 7th 2025) describes a novel method for rapid response vaccine development. The developed vaccine candidate can be either rapidly attenuated by randomized mutation or completely inactivated by the same process to achieve a combination of optimal vaccine safety and efficacy. The process involves three key steps: (1) heating the virus to reversibly unravel its protein shell or capsid, (2) exposing the disrupted virus to ribonucleic acid (RNA) degrading enzymes such as RNase A and RNase H, and (3) cooling the virus to renature or restore the capsid, preserving the external protein structures that trigger immune responses. The heating step temporarily opens the viral capsid, allowing the enzymes to enter and degrade the viral RNA genome. The extent of RNA digestion can be controlled to either completely inactivate the virus without damaging the immunogenic surface proteins necessary for vaccine effectiveness or achieve a partial but reparable digestion of the nucleic acids. The cooling step reassembles the capsid structure, now containing fragmented RNA. In the partially degraded process, infection of cells with the heat and RNAse treated virus leads to repair of the damaged RNA and incorporation of attenuating mutations. The rapidly attenuated viral variants can be purified for vaccine production. The method has been successfully tested on porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), a swine enteric coronavirus, and influenza A virus (IAV), demonstrating strong immune protection in swine models. The heat + RNase treated vaccines induced robust antibody responses, prevented viral shedding, and protected against tissue damage upon viral challenge. In contrast to gamma irradiation, this technique preserved antigenicity more effectively and achieved superior immune outcomes. The approach is broadly adaptable to other viruses which may not have a viable reverse genetics system or in situations where a novel virus has just emerged and has been cultured but not successfully cloned, potentially revolutionizing rapid vaccine development for emerging zoonotic and pandemic threats.