DNA vaccine protection against SARS-CoV-2 in rhesus macaques | Science

Type Web Page Author Jingyou Yu Author Lisa H. Tostanoski Author Lauren Peter Author Noe B. Mercado Author Katherine McMahan Author Shant H. Mahrokhian Author Joseph P. Nkolola Author Jinyan Liu Author Zhenfeng Li Author Abishek Chandrashekar Author David R. Martinez Author Carolin Loos Author Caroline Atyeo Author Stephanie Fischinger Author John S. Burke Author Matthew D. Slein Author Yuezhou Chen Author Adam Zuiani Author Felipe J.N. Lelis Author Meghan Travers Author Shaghayegh Habibi Author Laurent Pessaint Author Alex Van Ry Author Kelvin Blade Author Renita Brown Author Anthony Cook Author Brad Finneyfrock Author Alan Dodson Author Elyse Teow Author Jason Velasco Author Roland Zahn Author Frank Wegmann Author Esther A. Bondzie Author Gabriel Dagotto Author Makda S. Gebre Author Xuan He Author Catherine Jacob-Dolan Author Marinela Kirilova Author Nicole Kordana Author Zijin Lin Author Lori F. Maxfield Author Felix Nampanya Author Ramya Nityanandam Author John D. Ventura Author Huahua Wan Author Yongfei Cai Author Bing Chen Author Aaron G. Schmidt Author Duane R. Wesemann Author Ralph S. Baric Author Galit Alter Author Hanne Andersen Author Mark G. Lewis Author Dan H. Barouch URL https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/05/19/science.abc6284 Date 20/05/2020 Accessed 2020-07-05 18:51:11 Abstract The global COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has made the development of a vaccine a top biomedical priority. In this study, we developed a series of DNA vaccine candidates expressing different forms of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S) protein and evaluated them in 35 rhesus macaques. Vaccinated animals developed humoral and cellular immune responses, including neutralizing antibody titers comparable to those found in convalescent humans and macaques infected with SARS-CoV-2. Following vaccination, all animals were challenged with SARS-CoV-2, and the vaccine encoding the full-length S protein resulted in >3.1 and >3.7 log10 reductions in median viral loads in bronchoalveolar lavage and nasal mucosa, respectively, as compared with sham controls. Vaccine-elicited neutralizing antibody titers correlated with protective efficacy, suggesting an immune correlate of protection. These data demonstrate vaccine protection against SARS-CoV-2 in nonhuman primates. Website Title American Association for the Advancement of Science / Science