학술논문

A live attenuated virus-based intranasal COVID-19 vaccine provides rapid, prolonged, and broad protection against SARS-CoV-2.
Document Type
Article
Source
Science Bulletin. Jul2022, Vol. 67 Issue 13, p1372-1387. 16p.
Subject
*COVID-19
*LUNGS
*SARS-CoV-2
*COVID-19 pandemic
*SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant
*COVID-19 vaccines
*BOOSTER vaccines
Language
ISSN
2095-9273
Abstract
[Display omitted] Remarkable progress has been made in developing intramuscular vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2); however, they are limited with respect to eliciting local immunity in the respiratory tract, which is the primary infection site for SARS-CoV-2. To overcome the limitations of intramuscular vaccines, we constructed a nasal vaccine candidate based on an influenza vector by inserting a gene encoding the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, named CA4-dNS1-nCoV-RBD (dNS1-RBD). A preclinical study showed that in hamsters challenged 1 d after single-dose vaccination or 9 months after booster vaccination, dNS1-RBD largely mitigated lung pathology, with no loss of body weight. Moreover, such cellular immunity is relatively unimpaired for the most concerning SARS-CoV-2 variants, especially for the latest Omicron variant. In addition, this vaccine also provides cross-protection against H1N1 and H5N1 influenza viruses. The protective immune mechanism of dNS1-RBD could be attributed to the innate immune response in the nasal epithelium, local RBD-specific T cell response in the lung, and RBD-specific IgA and IgG response. Thus, this study demonstrates that the intranasally delivered dNS1-RBD vaccine candidate may offer an important addition to the fight against the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and influenza infection, compensating limitations of current intramuscular vaccines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]