A novel linker-immunodominant site (LIS) vaccine targeting the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein protects against severe COVID-19 in Syrian hamsters
oleh: Bao-Zhong Zhang, Xiaolei Wang, Shuofeng Yuan, Wenjun Li, Ying Dou, Vincent Kwok-Man Poon, Chris Chung-Sing Chan, Jian-Piao Cai, Kenn KaHeng Chik, Kaiming Tang, Chris Chun-Yiu Chan, Ye-Fan Hu, Jing-Chu Hu, Smaranda Ruxandra Badea, Hua-Rui Gong, Xuansheng Lin, Hin Chu, Xuechen Li, Kelvin Kai-Wang To, Li Liu, Zhiwei Chen, Ivan Fan-Ngai Hung, Kwok Yung Yuen, Jasper Fuk-Woo Chan, Jian-Dong Huang
| Format: | Article |
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| Diterbitkan: | Taylor & Francis Group 2021-01-01 |
Deskripsi
The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is unlikely to abate until sufficient herd immunity is built up by either natural infection or vaccination. We previously identified ten linear immunodominant sites on the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein of which four are located within the RBD. Therefore, we designed two linkerimmunodominant site (LIS) vaccine candidates which are composed of four immunodominant sites within the RBD (RBD-ID) or all the 10 immunodominant sites within the whole spike (S-ID). They were administered by subcutaneous injection and were tested for immunogenicity and in vivo protective efficacy in a hamster model for COVID-19. We showed that the S-ID vaccine induced significantly better neutralizing antibody response than RBD-ID and alum control. As expected, hamsters vaccinated by S-ID had significantly less body weight loss, lung viral load, and histopathological changes of pneumonia. The S-ID has the potential to be an effective vaccine for protection against COVID-19.