High Protection and Transmission-blocking Immunity Elicited by Single-cycle SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine in Hamsters

Overview

Journal NPJ Vaccines

Date 2024 Oct 30

PMID 39472701

Authors

Martin Joseph Lett

Fabian Otte

David Hauser

Jacob Schon

Enja Tatjana Kipfer

Donata Hoffmann

Nico J Halwe

Angele Breithaupt

Lorenz Ulrich

Tobias Britzke

Jana Kochmann

Bjorn Corleis

Yuepeng Zhang

Lorena Urda

Vladimir Cmiljanovic

Christopher Lang

Martin Beer

Christian Mittelholzer

Thomas Klimkait

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Vaccines have played a central role in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, but newly emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants are increasingly evading first-generation vaccine protection. To address this challenge, we designed "single-cycle infection SARS-CoV-2 viruses" (SCVs) that lack essential viral genes, possess distinctive immune-modulatory features, and exhibit an excellent safety profile in the Syrian hamster model. Animals intranasally vaccinated with an Envelope-gene-deleted vaccine candidate were fully protected against an autologous challenge with the SARS-CoV-2 virus through systemic and mucosal humoral immune responses. Additionally, the deletion of immune-downregulating viral genes in the vaccine construct prevented challenge virus transmission to contact animals. Moreover, vaccinated animals displayed neither tissue inflammation nor lung damage. Consequently, SCVs hold promising potential to induce potent protection against COVID-19, surpassing the immunity conferred by natural infection, as demonstrated in human immune cells.

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