Intranasal administration of a single dose of a candidate live attenuated vaccine derived from an NSP16-deficient SARS-CoV-2 strain confers sterilizing immunity in animals.

ABSTRACT: Live attenuated vaccines might elicit mucosal and sterilizing immunity against SARS-CoV-2 that the existing mRNA, adenoviral vector and inactivated vaccines fail to induce. Here, we describe a candidate live attenuated vaccine strain of SARS-CoV-2 in which the NSP16 gene, which encodes 2'-O-methyltransferase, is catalytically disrupted by a point mutation. This virus, designated d16, was severely attenuated in hamsters and transgenic mice, causing only asymptomatic and nonpathogenic infection. A single dose of d16 administered intranasally resulted in sterilizing immunity in both the upper and lower respiratory tracts of hamsters, thus preventing viral spread in a contact-based transmission model. It also robustly stimulated humoral and cell-mediated immune responses, thus conferring full

SUBMITTER: Ye ZW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8961489 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature