{
  "abstract": "Cryptococcal meningitis remains a leading cause of death among HIV/AIDS patients, and no antifungal vaccine is available in clinical use. We previously showed that mice immunized with a heat-killed preparation of Cryptococcus neoformans (Cn) fbp1{Delta} mutant (HK-fbp1) are protected against cryptococcosis and other invasive mycoses, suggesting that HK-fbp1 is an intriguing vaccine candidate for further study. Recent studies have reported that heat-killed wild type H99 (HK-H99) can also offer some protection in other vaccination models. Here we set out to decipher the differential protective capacity of HK-fbp1 versus HK-H99 across multiple conditions. We observed that HK-fbp1 confers superior protection in both prophylactic and therapeutic intranasal immunization settings than HK-H99, which was associated with greater activation of pulmonary CD4+ T cells and stronger airway IFN-{gamma} production. In addition, HK-fbp1 preparations were highly stable, retaining full protective efficacy even after 5 years of frozen storage. Mice intranasally immunized with two-dose HK-fbp1 were protected against challenge by up to 106 H99 cells, a 100-fold increase over the commonly used lethal inoculum. Addition of a CpG adjuvant ODN to HK-fbp1 (HK-bp1/ODN) led to a 5-fold reduction of the intranasal vaccine inoculum required for protection, and its single-dose intramuscular vaccination induced protection persisted for at least 3 months post vaccination. Together, these findings highlight the robust protective capacity and formulation versatility of HK-fbp1, supporting its further development as a stable, dose-sparing antifungal vaccine candidate.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Public Health Research Institute, and Department of Microbiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, 07103, United States",
    "Center for Immunity and Inflammation, and Department of Pediatrics, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, 07103, United States"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 8,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Yu Zhang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Yina Wang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Keyi Wang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Lu Gan"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Aaron Lemmer"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Siddhi Pawar",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-9276-095X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Amariliz Rivera",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-2173-5597"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Chaoyang Xue",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-8196-1468"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0e5kehcy2nq0k.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.10.21.760669",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.21.760669v1.full",
  "id": "0e5kehcy2nq0k",
  "issns": [
    "2692-8205"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.21.760669v1",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "microbiology"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Article"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2713|Fungal Infections and Studies"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223648545",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.21.760669v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": "PMC13733692",
  "pmid": "42990127",
  "published": "2026-10-21",
  "publisher": "Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Preprints",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0e5kehcy2nq0k.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:29:39Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.10.21.760669",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.21.760669v1"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-08T12:23:24Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13733692",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.10.21.760669"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:microbiology",
      "subfield": "microbiology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Development of an HK-fbp1-based vaccine platform against Cryptococcus neoformans",
  "title_text": "Development of an HK-fbp1-based vaccine platform against Cryptococcus neoformans",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-08T12:23:24Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0e5kehcy2nq0k",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}