Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic presents an unprecedented challenge to global public health. Rapid development and deployment of safe and effective vaccines are imperative to control the pandemic. In the current study, we applied our adjuvanted stable prefusion SARS-CoV-2 spike (S-2P)-based vaccine, MVC-COV1901, to hamster models to demonstrate immunogenicity and protection from virus challenge. Golden Syrian hamsters immunized intramuscularly with two injections of 1 µg or 5 µg of S-2P adjuvanted with CpG 1018 and aluminum hydroxide (alum) were challenged intranasally with SARS-CoV-2. Prior to virus challenge, the vaccine induced high levels of neutralizing antibodies with 10,000-fold higher IgG level and an average of 50-fold higher pseudovirus neutralizing titers in either dose groups than vehicle or adjuvant control groups. Six days after infection, vaccinated hamsters did not display any weight loss associated with infection and had significantly reduced lung pathology and most importantly, lung viral load levels were reduced to lower than detection limit compared to unvaccinated animals. Vaccination with either 1 μg or 5 μg of adjuvanted S-2P produced comparable immunogenicity and protection from infection. This study builds upon our previous results to support the clinical development of MVC-COV1901 as a safe, highly immunogenic, and protective COVID-19 vaccine.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic presents an unprecedented challenge to global public health
Golden Syrian hamsters were found to have the closest homologue of human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) and can be infected in lower respiratory tract presenting with symptoms such as weight loss, respiratory distress and lung injury, making them an attractive small animal model with which to study SARS-CoV-2 challenge and vaccine development[12,13,14]
All dosages of virus resulted in elevated lung pathology (Figure S4), even at 103 PFU where the animals did not experience weight loss (Figure S2)
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic presents an unprecedented challenge to global public health. Rapid development and deployment of safe and effective vaccines are imperative to control the pandemic. We applied our adjuvanted stable prefusion SARS-CoV-2 spike (S-2P)-based vaccine, MVC-COV1901, to hamster models to demonstrate immunogenicity and protection from virus challenge. The adjuvanted S-2P (MVC-COV1901) was highly immunogenic and promoted a Th1-biased immune response in mice and no serious adverse effects were observed in toxicology studies in r ats[10] Based on these results, we have carried. Golden Syrian hamsters were found to have the closest homologue of hACE2 and can be infected in lower respiratory tract presenting with symptoms such as weight loss, respiratory distress and lung injury, making them an attractive small animal model with which to study SARS-CoV-2 challenge and vaccine development[12,13,14]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
