A safe and highly efficacious measles virus-based vaccine expressing SARS-CoV-2 stabilized prefusion spike
Mijia Lu, Piyush Dravid, Yuexiu Zhang, Sheetal Trivedi, Anzhong Li, Olivia Harder, Mahesh KC, Supranee Chaiwatpongsakorn, Ashley Zani, Adam D. Kenney, Cong Zeng, Chuanxi Cai, Chengjin Ye, Xueya Liang, Masako Shimamura, Shan‐Lu Liu, Asunción Mejías, Octavio Ramilo, Prosper N. Boyaka, Jianming Qiu, Luis Martínez‐Sobrido, Jacob S. Yount, Mark E. Peeples, Amit Kapoor, Stefan Niewiesk, Jiànróng Lǐ
Abstract
-hCD46 mice, and golden Syrian hamsters. We found that rMeV expressing stabilized prefusion S protein (rMeV-preS) was more potent in inducing SARS-CoV-2-specific neutralizing antibodies than rMeV expressing full-length S protein (rMeV-S), while the rMeVs expressing different lengths of RBD (rMeV-RBD) were the least potent. Animals immunized with rMeV-preS produced higher levels of neutralizing antibody than found in convalescent sera from COVID-19 patients and a strong Th1-biased T cell response. The rMeV-preS also provided complete protection of hamsters from challenge with SARS-CoV-2, preventing replication in lungs and nasal turbinates, body weight loss, cytokine storm, and lung pathology. These data demonstrate that rMeV-preS is a safe and highly efficacious vaccine candidate, supporting its further development as a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.