Elizabeth Parzych, Alison Generotti, Maria Yang, Chuan Qin, Karen R. Buttigieg, Pratik Bhojnagarwala, Dustin Elwood, Igor Maricic, J. Joseph Kim, Patrick Pezzoli, Arthur Doan, Miguel Vasquez, Edgar Tello-Ruiz, Faraz I. Zaidi, Miles W. Carroll, Yaya Dia, Yuanhan Wu, Daniel Wrapp, Jason S. McLellan, Xizhou Zhu, David B. Weiner, Nicholas J. Tursi, Ami Shah Brown, Emma L. Reuschel, Jacqueline Chu, Ami Patel, Ziyang Xu, Nianshuang Wang, Wei Deng, Daniel W. Kulp, Gan Zhao, Timothy A. Herring, Katherine Schultheis, Susanne Walker, Neethu Chokkalingam, Karuppiah Muthumani, Mamadou A. Bah, Jiun Ming Wu, Laurent Humeau, Linlin Bao, Dinah Amante, Stephanie Ramos, Jihae Choi, Ebony N. Gary, Sophia M. Reeder, Jean D. Boyer, Viviane M Andrade, Bin Wang, Daniel H. Park, Mansi Purwar, Makan Khoshnejad, Jiangning Liu, Kevin Kim, Dan Li, Ali Raza Ali, Kate E. Broderick, Trevor R.F. Smith, Jian Yan, and Jewell Walters
The coronavirus family member, SARS-CoV-2 has been identified as the causal agent for the pandemic viral pneumonia disease, COVID-19. At this time, no vaccine is available to control further dissemination of the disease. We have previously engineered a synthetic DNA vaccine targeting the MERS coronavirus Spike (S) protein, the major surface antigen of coronaviruses, which is currently in clinical study. Here we build on this prior experience to generate a synthetic DNA-based vaccine candidate targeting SARS-CoV-2 S protein. The engineered construct, INO-4800, results in robust expression of the S protein in vitro. Following immunization of mice and guinea pigs with INO-4800 we measure antigen-specific T cell responses, functional antibodies which neutralize the SARS-CoV-2 infection and block Spike protein binding to the ACE2 receptor, and biodistribution of SARS-CoV-2 targeting antibodies to the lungs. This preliminary dataset identifies INO-4800 as a potential COVID-19 vaccine candidate, supporting further translational study., There is currently no licensed SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Here, the authors generate an optimized DNA vaccine candidate encoding the SARS-CoV-2 spike antigen, demonstrating induction of specific T cells and neutralizing antibody responses in mice and guinea pigs. These initial results support further development of this vaccine candidate.