Challenge study in golden Syrian hamster to evaluate the protective efficacy of the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) candidate vaccine developed by Vabiotech

Abstract

The challenge study was performed in golden Syrian hamster to evaluate the protective effect of COVINVAX, a candidate vaccine developed by the company VABIOTECH, against Covid-19. The result showed that COVINVAX vaccine has prevented the infection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, alleviated clinical symptoms and prevented death in the vaccinated hamsters in comparison with the control hamsters, especially in the group of intramuscular route. In which, the result of viral quantify testing by Realtime-PCR of the hamster vaccinated with two doses by intramuscular route was undetectable. While the hamster vaccinated with two doses, the first dose by the intramuscular route and the second dose by nasal route, had a high viral load after challenge, with Ct value 29.05. These results demonstrate that our candidate vaccine, COVINVAX has the ability to protect against the clinical disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. This challenge model on the golden Syrian hamster will serve as an important basis for our further preclinical studies.