Intranasal delivery of a chimpanzee adenovirus vector expressing a pre-fusion spike (BV-AdCoV-1) protects golden Syrian hamsters against SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Shen Wang, Long Xu, Ting Mu, Mian Qin, Ping Zhao, Liang Xie, Linsen Du, Yue Wu, Nicolas Legrand, Karine Mouchain, Guillaume Fichet, Yi Liu, Wenhao Yin, Jin Zhao, Min Ji, Bo Gong, Michel Klein, Ke Wu
Author Information
Shen Wang: Regularoty and Medical Affairs Department, Wuhan BravoVax Co., Ltd., Wuhan, China.
We evaluated the immunogenicity and protective ability of a chimpanzee replication-deficient adenovirus vectored COVID-19 vaccine (BV-AdCoV-1) expressing a stabilized pre-fusion SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein in golden Syrian hamsters. Intranasal administration of BV-AdCoV-1 elicited strong humoral and cellular immunity in the animals. Furthermore, vaccination prevented weight loss, reduced SARS-CoV-2 infectious virus titers in the lungs as well as lung pathology and provided protection against SARS-CoV-2 live challenge. In addition, there was no vaccine-induced enhanced disease nor immunopathological exacerbation in BV-AdCoV-1-vaccinated animals. Furthermore, the vaccine induced cross-neutralizing antibody responses against the ancestral strain and the B.1.617.2, Omicron(BA.1), Omicron(BA.2.75) and Omicron(BA.4/5) variants of concern. These results demonstrate that BV-AdCoV-1 is potentially a promising candidate vaccine to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection, and to curtail pandemic spread in humans.
