Single-dose intranasal administration of AdCOVID elicits systemic and mucosal immunity against SARS-CoV-2 in mice

King, R. G.; Silva-Sanchez, A.; Peel, J. N.; Botta, D.; Meza-Perez, S.; Allie, R.; Schultz, M. D.; Liu, M.; Bradley, J. E.; Qiu, S.; Yang, G.; Zhou, F.; Zumaquero, E.; Simpler, T. S.; Mousseau, B.; Killian, J. T.; Dean, B.; Shang, Q.; Tipper, J. L.; Risley, C.; Harrod, K. S.; Feng, R.; Lee, Y.; Shiberu, B.; Krishnan, V.; Peguillet, I.; Zhang, J.; Green, T.; Randall, T. D.; Georges, B.; Lund, F. E.; Roberts, S.

doi:10.1101/2020.10.10.331348

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2020.10.10.331348

Single-dose intranasal administration of AdCOVID elicits systemic and mucosal immunity against SARS-CoV-2 in mice

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Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted the urgent need for effective preventive vaccination to reduce burden and spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in humans. Intranasal vaccination is an attractive strategy to prevent COVID-19 as the nasal mucosa represents the first-line barrier to SARS-CoV-2 entry before viral spread to the lung. Although SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development is rapidly progressing, the current intramuscular vaccines are designed to elicit systemic immunity without conferring mucosal immunity. Here, we show that AdCOVID, an intranasal adenovirus type 5 (Ad5)-vectored vaccine encoding the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, elicits a strong and focused immune response against RBD through the induction of mucosal IgA, serum neutralizing antibodies and CD4+ and CD8+ T cells with a Th1-like cytokine expression profile. Therefore, AdCOVID, which promotes concomitant systemic and local mucosal immunity, represents a promising COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

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King, R. G., Silva-Sanchez, A., Peel, J. N., Botta, D., Meza-Perez, S., Allie, R., Schultz, M. D., Liu, M., Bradley, J. E., Qiu, S., Yang, G., Zhou, F., Zumaquero, E., Simpler, T. S., Mousseau, B., Killian, J. T., Dean, B., Shang, Q., Tipper, J. L., Risley, C., Harrod, K. S., Feng, R., Lee, Y., Shiberu, B., Krishnan, V., Peguillet, I., Zhang, J., Green, T., Randall, T. D., Georges, B., Lund, F. E., Roberts, S.. 2020-10-11. Single-dose intranasal administration of AdCOVID elicits systemic and mucosal immunity against SARS-CoV-2 in mice. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.10.331348

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