Abstract
The current COVID-19 pandemic has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and its causative agent, SARS-CoV-2, has infected millions, globally. The highly contagious nature of this respiratory virus has spurred massive global efforts to develop vaccines at record speeds. In addition to enhanced immunogen delivery, adjuvants may greatly impact protective efficacy of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. To investigate adjuvant suitability, we formulated protein subunit vaccines consisting of the recombinant S1 domain of SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein alone or in combination with either CoVaccine HT™ or Alhydrogel. CoVaccine HT™ induced high titres of antigen-binding IgG after a single dose, facilitated affinity maturation and class switching to a greater extent than Alhydrogel and elicited potent cell-mediated immunity as well as virus neutralizing antibody titres. Data presented here suggests that adjuvantation with CoVaccine HT™ can rapidly induce a comprehensive and protective immune response to SARS-CoV-2.
Highlights
The outbreak of 2019-novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), the etiological agent of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), began in Wuhan, China in late 2019 and quickly spread across the globe causing epidemics on every continent except Antarctica in under four months
The results suggest that CoVaccine HTTM is a superior adjuvant for induction of an antigen-specific Th1-focused cellular immune response, which is critical for SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development
The small number of adjuvants approved for clinical use has limited vaccine development in the past and impacts current clinical trials of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines
Summary
The outbreak of 2019-novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), the etiological agent of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), began in Wuhan, China in late 2019 and quickly spread across the globe causing epidemics on every continent except Antarctica in under four months. This virus has caused more than 33 million cases and over 1 million deaths worldwide (as of 9-29-20) [1]. Vaccine platforms at the forefront of development are mRNA-based, DNA-based, virally vectored (replication competent or incompetent), as well as recombinant protein subunits [6, 7].
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