Frontiers in Immunology (Aug 2022)

Heterologous immunization with adenovirus vectored and inactivated vaccines effectively protects against SARS-CoV-2 variants in mice and macaques

  • Qian He,
  • Qunying Mao,
  • Jialu Zhang,
  • Fan Gao,
  • Yu Bai,
  • Bopei Cui,
  • Jianyang Liu,
  • Chaoqiang An,
  • Qian Wang,
  • Xujia Yan,
  • Jinghuan Yang,
  • Lifang Song,
  • Ziyang Song,
  • Dong Liu,
  • Yadi Yuan,
  • Jing Sun,
  • Jincun Zhao,
  • Lianlian Bian,
  • Xing Wu,
  • Weijin Huang,
  • Changgui Li,
  • Junzhi Wang,
  • Zhenglun Liang,
  • Miao Xu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.949248
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13

Abstract

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To cope with the decline in COVID-19 vaccine-induced immunity caused by emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants, a heterologous immunization regimen using chimpanzee adenovirus vectored vaccine expressing SARS-CoV-2 spike (ChAd-S) and an inactivated vaccine (IV) was tested in mice and non-human primates (NHPs). Heterologous regimen successfully enhanced or at least maintained antibody and T cell responses and effectively protected against SARS-CoV-2 variants in mice and NHPs. An additional heterologous booster in mice further improved and prolonged the spike-specific antibody response and conferred effective neutralizing activity against the Omicron variant. Interestingly, priming with ChAd-S and boosting with IV reduced the lung injury risk caused by T cell over activation in NHPs compared to homologous ChAd-S regimen, meanwhile maintained the flexibility of antibody regulation system to react to virus invasion by upregulating or preserving antibody levels. This study demonstrated the satisfactory compatibility of ChAd-S and IV in prime-boost vaccination in animal models.

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