CVnCoV and CV2CoV protect human ACE2 transgenic mice from ancestral B BavPat1 and emerging B.1.351 SARS-CoV-2

  1. Donata Hoffmann
  2. Björn Corleis
  3. Susanne Rauch
  4. Nicole Roth
  5. Janine Mühe
  6. Nico Joel Halwe
  7. Lorenz Ulrich
  8. Charlie Fricke
  9. Jacob Schön
  10. Anna Kraft
  11. Angele Breithaupt
  12. Kerstin Wernike
  13. Anna Michelitsch
  14. Franziska Sick
  15. Claudia Wylezich
  16. Bernd Hoffmann
  17. Moritz Thran
  18. Andreas Thess
  19. Stefan O. Mueller
  20. Thomas C. Mettenleiter
  21. Benjamin Petsch
  22. Anca Dorhoi
  23. Martin Beer

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Abstract

The ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic necessitates the fast development of vaccines. Recently, viral mutants termed variants of concern (VOC) which may escape host immunity have emerged. The efficacy of spike encoding mRNA vaccines (CVnCoV and CV2CoV) against the ancestral strain and the VOC B.1.351 was tested in a K18-hACE2 transgenic mouse model. Naive mice and mice immunized with a formalin-inactivated SARS-CoV-2 preparation were used as controls. mRNA-immunized mice develop elevated SARS-CoV-2 RBD-specific antibody and neutralization titers which are readily detectable, but significantly reduced against VOC B.1.351. The mRNA vaccines fully protect from disease and mortality caused by either viral strain. SARS-CoV-2 remains undetected in swabs, lung, or brain in these groups. Despite lower neutralizing antibody titers compared to the ancestral strain BavPat1, CVnCoV and CV2CoV show complete disease protection against the novel VOC B.1.351 in our studies.

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  1. Version published to 10.1038/s41467-021-24339-7
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.03.22.435960: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.03.22.435960 on bioRxiv