PLoS ONE (Jan 2023)

Immunogenicity and safety of a recombinant adenovirus type-5 COVID-19 vaccine in adults: Data from a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, single-dose, phase 3 trial in Russia.

  • Dmitry Lioznov,
  • Irina Amosova,
  • Savely A Sheetikov,
  • Ksenia V Zornikova,
  • Yana Serdyuk,
  • Grigory A Efimov,
  • Mikhail Tsyferov,
  • Mikhail Khmelevskii,
  • Andrei Afanasiev,
  • Nadezhda Khomyakova,
  • Dmitry Zubkov,
  • Anton Tikhonov,
  • Tao Zhu,
  • Luis Barreto,
  • Vitalina Dzutseva

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278878
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 18, no. 3
p. e0278878

Abstract

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BackgroundTo determine the immunogenicity, efficacy, reactogenicity, and safety of a single dose of recombinant adenovirus type-5 vectored COVID-19 vaccine (Ad5-nCoV, 5 × 1010 viral particles per 0.5 mL dose), we conducted a single-dose, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel group (3:1 Ad5-nCoV:placebo), phase 3 trial (Prometheus).MethodsFrom 11-September-2020 to 05-May-2021, across six sites in the Russian Federation, 496 participants were injected with either placebo or Ad5-nCoV expressing the full-length spike (S) protein from the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).ResultsSeroconversion (the primary endpoint) rates of 78.5% (95% CI: 73.9; 82.6) against receptor binding domain (RBD), 90.6% (95% CI: 87.2; 93.4) against S protein and 59.0% (95% CI: 53.3; 64.6) seroconversion of neutralising antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 at 28 days post-vaccination were observed. Geometric mean titres (GMTs) were also elevated for antibodies against the RBD (405 [95% CI: 366; 449]) and S protein (677 [95% CI: 608; 753]) compared to the GMT of neutralising antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 (16.7 [95% CI: 15.3; 18.3]). Using an IFN-γ ELISpot assay after stimulating the cells with recombinant S protein ectodomain we showed that the Ad5-nCoV vaccine induced the most robust cellular immune response on Days 14 and 28. Up to Day 28, the primary and all secondary endpoints of the Ad5-nCoV vaccine were statistically significant compared with the placebo (рConclusionA single-dose of Ad5-nCoV vaccine induced a marked specific humoral and cellular immune response with a favourable safety profile.Trial registrationTrial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04540419.