ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) protects Syrian hamsters against SARS-CoV-2 B.1.351 and B.1.1.7

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Abstract

We investigated ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) vaccine efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 in Syrian hamsters. We previously showed protection against SARS-CoV-2 disease and pneumonia in hamsters vaccinated with a single dose of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. Here, we observe a 9.5-fold reduction of virus neutralizing antibody titer in vaccinated hamster sera against B.1.351 compared to B.1.1.7. Vaccinated hamsters challenged with B.1.1.7 or B.1.351 do not lose weight compared to control animals. In contrast to control animals, the lungs of vaccinated animals do not show any gross lesions. Minimal to no viral subgenomic RNA (sgRNA) and no infectious virus can be detected in lungs of vaccinated animals. Histopathological evaluation shows extensive pulmonary pathology caused by B.1.1.7 or B.1.351 replication in the control animals, but none in the vaccinated animals. These data demonstrate the effectiveness of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine against clinical disease caused by B.1.1.7 or B.1.351 VOCs.

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2021.03.11.435000: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIACUC: Ethics Statement: All animal experiments were conducted in an AAALAC International-accredited facility and were approved by the Rocky Mountain Laboratories Institutional Care and Use Committee following the guidelines put forth in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals 8th edition, the Animal Welfare Act, United States Department of Agriculture and the United States Public Health Service Policy on the Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variableFour groups of 10, 4-6-week-old female Syrian hamsters (Envigo Indianapolis, IN) were vaccinated with 2.5 × 108 infectious units of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine or ChAdOx1-GFP delivered intramuscularly in two 50 µL doses into the posterior thighs 30 days prior to challenge.
    Cell Line AuthenticationContamination: Mycoplasma testing is performed at regular intervals and no mycoplasma was detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    Antibodies were detected using affinity-purified polyclonal antibody peroxidase-labeled goat-anti-monkey IgG (Seracare, 074-11-021) in casein followed by TMB 2-component peroxidase substrate (Seracare, 5120-0047).
    IgG
    suggested: None
    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    VeroE6 cells were maintained in DMEM supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum, 1 mM L-glutamine, 50 U/ml penicillin and 50 μg/ml streptomycin.
    VeroE6
    suggested: JCRB Cat# JCRB1819, RRID:CVCL_YQ49)
    Expression was performed in Freestyle 293-F cells (Thermofisher), maintained in Freestyle 293 Expression Medium (Gibco) at 37°C and 8% CO2 shaking at 130 rpm
    293-F
    suggested: None
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Remaining reads were mapped to the SARS-CoV-2 2019-nCoV/USA-WA1/2020 genome (MN985325.1) or hCoV-19/England/204820464/2020 (EPI_ISL_683466) or hCoV-19/SouthAfrica/KRISP-K005325/2020 (EPI_ISL_678615) using Bowtie2 version 2.2.928 with parameters --local --no-mixed -X 1500.
    Bowtie2
    suggested: (Bowtie 2, RRID:SCR_016368)
    PCR duplicates were removed using picard MarkDuplicates (Broad Institute) and variants were called using GATK HaplotypeCaller version 4.1.2.029 with parameter –ploidy 2.
    GATK
    suggested: (GATK, RRID:SCR_001876)
    Data availability statement: Data have been deposited in Figshare
    Figshare
    suggested: (FigShare, RRID:SCR_004328)

    Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your data.


    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

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.