A live measles-vectored COVID-19 vaccine induces strong immunity and protection from SARS-CoV-2 challenge in mice and hamsters

Phanramphoei N. Frantz (1, 2, 3) , Aleksandr Barinov (1, 2, 4, 5) , Claude Ruffié (1, 2) , Chantal Combredet (1, 2) , Valérie Najburg (1, 2) , Guilherme Dias de Melo (6) , Florence Larrous (6) , Lauriane Kergoat (6) , Samaporn Teeravechyan (3) , Anan Jongkaewwattana (3) , Emmanuelle Billon-Denis (7) , Jean-Nicolas Tournier (7) , Matthieu Prot (8) , Laurine Levillayer (8) , Laurine Conquet (9) , Xavier Montagutelli (9) , Magali Tichit (10) , David Hardy (10) , Priyanka Fernandes (11) , Hélène Strick-Marchand (11) , James Di Santo (11) , Etienne Simon-Lorière (8) , Hervé Bourhy (6) , Frédéric Tangy (1, 2)

1 Laboratoire d’innovation : vaccins – Innovation lab : vaccines
2 UPCité - Université Paris Cité
3 BIOTEC - National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology [Thailand]
4 VIROxIS [Villejuif]
5 IGR - Institut Gustave Roussy
6 Lyssavirus, épidémiologie et neuropathologie - Lyssavirus Epidemiology and Neuropathology
7 IRBA - Institut de Recherche Biomédicale des Armées
8 Génomique évolutive des virus à ARN - Evolutionary genomics of RNA viruses
9 Génétique de la souris - Mouse Genetics
10 Neuropathologie expérimentale / Experimental neuropathology
11 Immunité Innée - Innate Immunity

Several COVID-19 vaccines have now been deployed to tackle the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, most of them based on messenger RNA or adenovirus vectors.The duration of protection afforded by these vaccines is unknown, as well as their capacity to protect from emerging new variants. To provide sufficient coverage for the world population, additional strategies need to be tested. The live pediatric measles vaccine (MV) is an attractive approach, given its extensive safety and efficacy history, along with its established large-scale manufacturing capacity. We develop an MV-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine expressing the prefusion-stabilized, membrane-anchored full-length S antigen, which proves to be efficient at eliciting strong Th1-dominant T-cell responses and high neutralizing antibody titers. In both mouse and golden Syrian hamster models, these responses protect the animals from intranasal infectious challenge. Additionally, the elicited antibodies efficiently neutralize in vitro the three currently circulating variants of SARS-CoV-2.

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]

Phanramphoei N. Frantz, Aleksandr Barinov, Claude Ruffié, Chantal Combredet, Valérie Najburg, et al.. A live measles-vectored COVID-19 vaccine induces strong immunity and protection from SARS-CoV-2 challenge in mice and hamsters. Nature Communications, 2021, 12 (1), pp.6277. ⟨10.1038/s41467-021-26506-2⟩. ⟨pasteur-03416317⟩