A third vaccination with a single T cell epitope confers protection in a murine model of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the mechanisms and impact of booster vaccinations are essential in the design and delivery of vaccination programs. Here we show that a three dose regimen of a synthetic peptide vaccine elicits an accruing CD8⁺ T cell response against one SARS-CoV-2 Spike epitope. We see protection against lethal SARS-CoV-2 infection in the K18-hACE2 transgenic mouse model in the absence of neutralizing antibodies, but two dose approaches are insufficient to confer protection. The third vaccine dose of the single T cell epitope peptide results in superior generation of effector-memory T cells and tissue-resident memory T cells, and these tertiary vaccine-specific CD8⁺ T cells are characterized by enhanced polyfunctional cytokine production. Moreover, fate mapping shows t

SUBMITTER: Pardieck IN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9267705 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature