DNA-Vaccine-Induced Immune Response Correlates with Lower Viral SARS-CoV-2 Titers in a Ferret Model

  • Mirco Compagnone
  • , Eleonora Pinto
  • , Erika Salvatori
  • , Lucia Lione
  • , Antonella Conforti*
  • , Silvia Marchese
  • , Micol Ravà
  • , Kathryn Ryan
  • , Yper Hall
  • , Emma Rayner
  • , Francisco J. Salguero
  • , Jemma Paterson
  • , Matteo Iannacone
  • , Raffaele De Francesco
  • , Luigi Aurisicchio*
  • , Fabio Palombo*
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is entering a new era with the approval of many SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. In spite of the restoration of an almost normal way of life thanks to the immune protection elicited by these innovative vaccines, we are still facing high viral circulation, with a significant number of deaths. To further explore alternative vaccination platforms, we developed COVID-eVax—a genetic vaccine based on plasmid DNA encoding the RBD domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Here, we describe the correlation between immune responses and the evolution of viral infection in ferrets infected with the live virus. We demonstrate COVID-eVax immunogenicity as means of antibody response and, above all, a significant T-cell response, thus proving the critical role of T-cell immunity, in addition to the neutralizing antibody activity, in controlling viral spread.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1178
JournalVaccines
Volume10
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.

Keywords

  • DNA vaccines
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • ferrets
  • immune responses

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'DNA-Vaccine-Induced Immune Response Correlates with Lower Viral SARS-CoV-2 Titers in a Ferret Model'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this