1. DNA vaccine protection against SARS-CoV-2 in rhesus macaques
- Author
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Mark G. Lewis, Gabriel Dagotto, Frank Wegmann, Joseph P. Nkolola, Yuezhou Chen, Marinela Kirilova, Yongfei Cai, Jason Velasco, Catherine Jacob-Dolan, Shant H. Mahrokhian, John D. Ventura, Nicole Kordana, Esther A. Bondzie, Lisa H. Tostanoski, Felipe J.N. Lelis, Lauren Peter, Roland Zahn, Lori F. Maxfield, Elyse Teow, Makda S. Gebre, Laurent Pessaint, Jinyan Liu, Matthew D. Slein, Adam Zuiani, Ralph S. Baric, David R. Martinez, Bing Chen, John S. Burke, Alan Dodson, Duane R. Wesemann, Jingyou Yu, Xuan He, Brad Finneyfrock, Renita Brown, Alex Van Ry, Dan H. Barouch, Galit Alter, Katherine McMahan, Caroline Atyeo, Anthony Cook, Huahua Wan, Stephanie Fischinger, Aaron G. Schmidt, Kelvin Blade, Meghan Travers, Carolin Loos, Felix Nampanya, Zhenfeng Li, Ramya Nityanandam, Abishek Chandrashekar, Shaghayegh Habibi, Noe B. Mercado, Hanne Andersen, and Zijin Lin
- Subjects
Male ,viruses ,Antibodies, Viral ,Immunogenicity, Vaccine ,Vaccines, DNA ,Medicine ,Neutralizing antibody ,Research Articles ,Immunity, Cellular ,Multidisciplinary ,biology ,Immunogenicity ,Viral Vaccine ,Vaccination ,Microbio ,Viral Load ,Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus ,Female ,Antibody ,Coronavirus Infections ,Viral load ,Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid ,Research Article ,COVID-19 Vaccines ,Pneumonia, Viral ,Immunology ,Immunization, Secondary ,DNA vaccination ,Betacoronavirus ,Adjuvants, Immunologic ,Protein Domains ,Immunity ,Animals ,Humans ,Pandemics ,business.industry ,SARS-CoV-2 ,R-Articles ,COVID-19 ,Viral Vaccines ,Virology ,Antibodies, Neutralizing ,Macaca mulatta ,Immunity, Humoral ,Disease Models, Animal ,Nasal Mucosa ,biology.protein ,Mutant Proteins ,business ,Immunologic Memory - Abstract
The global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has made the development of a vaccine a top biomedical priority. In this study, we developed a series of DNA vaccine candidates expressing different forms of the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein and evaluated them in 35 rhesus macaques. Vaccinated animals developed humoral and cellular immune responses, including neutralizing antibody titers at levels comparable to those found in convalescent humans and macaques infected with SARS-CoV-2. After vaccination, all animals were challenged with SARS-CoV-2, and the vaccine encoding the full-length S protein resulted in >3.1 and >3.7 log10 reductions in median viral loads in bronchoalveolar lavage and nasal mucosa, respectively, as compared with viral loads in sham controls. Vaccine-elicited neutralizing antibody titers correlated with protective efficacy, suggesting an immune correlate of protection. These data demonstrate vaccine protection against SARS-CoV-2 in nonhuman primates.
- Published
- 2020
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