Monovalent and Trivalent VSV-Based COVID-19 Vaccines Elicit Potent Neutralizing Antibodies and Immunodominant CD8 + T Cells Against Diverse SARS-CoV-2 Variants
31 Pages Posted: 31 Aug 2022 Publication Status: Published
More...Abstract
Recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) vaccines expressing Spike proteins of Wuhan, Beta and/or Delta variants of SARS-CoV-2 were generated and tested for induction of antibody and T cell immune responses in mice. rVSV-Wuhan and rVSV-Delta vaccines and a rVSV-Trivalent (mixed rVSV-Wuhan, -Beta, -Delta) vaccine elicited potent neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) against live SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan (USAWA1), Beta (B.1.351), Delta (B.1.617.2) and Omicron (B.1.1.529) viruses. Prime-boost vaccination with rVSV-Beta was less effective in this capacity. Heterologous boosting of rVSV-Wuhan with rVSV-Delta induced strong nAb responses against Delta and Omicron viruses, with rVSV-Trivalent vaccine consistently effective in inducing nAbs against all the SARS-CoV-2 variants tested. All vaccines, including rVSV-Beta, elicited a spike-specific immunodominant CD8+ T cell response. Collectively, rVSV vaccines targeting SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern may be considered in the global fight against COVID-19.
Funding Information: Funding for this study was provided by CIHR of Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada through a COVID-19 Immunity Taskforce grant (2020-VR2-173205) to RMT; a grant from CIHR (COV-440388) to SDB, RMT, EJA, SMMH, and CYK; a CoVaRR-Net Rapid Response Research Grant to SDB; a grant from CIHR (PJT 174984) to SMMH; and from Sumagen Canada to CYK.
Conflict of Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest concerning the materials used in this study or the findings specified in this paper.
Ethical Approval: Animal experiments were conducted in compliance with protocols (2020-084) approved by the Western University Animal Use Subcommittee.
Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, vaccine, Vesicular Stomatitis Virus, Neutralizing Antibodies, CD8+ T cells, spike protein, Variants of Concern
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