Poliovirus Vaccination Induces a Humoral Immune Response That Cross Reacts With SARS-CoV-2

  1. Brittany A. Comunale
  2. Lilly Engineer
  3. Yong Jiang
  4. John C. Andrews
  5. Qianna Liu
  6. Lyuqing Ji
  7. James T. Yurkovich
  8. Roderick A. Comunale
  9. Qiyi Xie

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Abstract

Background: Millions have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, but the severity of resultant infections has varied among adults and children, with adults presenting more serious symptomatic cases. Children may possess an immunity that adults lack, possibly from childhood vaccinations. This retrospective study suggests immunization against the poliovirus may provide an immunity to SARS-CoV-2.

Methods: Publicly available data were analyzed for possible correlations between national median ages and epidemiological outbreak patterns across 100 countries. Sera from 204 adults and children, who were immunized with the poliovirus vaccine, were analyzed using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The effects of polio-immune serum on SARS-CoV-2-induced cytopathology in cell culture were then evaluated.

Results: Analyses of median population age demonstrated a positive correlation between median age and SARS-CoV-2 prevalence and death rates. Countries with effective poliovirus immunization protocols and younger populations have fewer and less pathogenic cases of COVID-19. Antibodies to poliovirus and SARS-CoV-2 were found in pediatric sera and in sera from adults recently immunized with polio. Sera from polio-immunized individuals inhibited SARS-CoV-2 infection of Vero cell cultures. These results suggest the anti-D3-pol-antibody, induced by poliovirus vaccination, may provide a similar degree of protection from SARS-CoV-2 to adults as to children.

Conclusions: Poliovirus vaccination induces an adaptive humoral immune response. Antibodies created by poliovirus vaccination bind the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) protein of both poliovirus and SARS-CoV-2, thereby preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection. These findings suggest proteins other than “spike” proteins may be suitable targets for immunity and vaccine development.

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  1. Version published to 10.3389/fmed.2021.710010
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.06.19.21257191: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Ethicsnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Cell Line Authenticationnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    The primary antibody bound to the antigen coated on the well, and then the horse radish peroxidase (HRP) conjugated secondary antibody, which recognizes the primary antibody, formed a complex with the antigen, antigen-antibody-secondary antibody-HRP.
    antigen,
    suggested: None
    antibody-HRP
    suggested: None
    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    Vero E6 cells were seeded and incubated for 24 hours.
    Vero E6
    suggested: None
    Recombinant DNA
    SentencesResources
    Cloning and expression of SARS-CoV-2 RdRp: The full length nsp12 gene was cloned into an AmeriDx® E. coli over-expression vector pADX75.
    pADX75
    suggested: None
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Median age for each country was then included for correlation analyses, calculated using the corrplot package from R Studio software, version 1.4.1103 (https://cran.r-project.org/index.html), between median age and SARS-CoV-2 prevalence and death rates.
    R Studio
    suggested: None
    The fluorescence signal in each vial was quantified using the mean gray value in an ImageJ program (https://imagej.nih.gov/ij/index.html) [15].
    ImageJ
    suggested: (ImageJ, RRID:SCR_003070)

    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: We found the following clinical trial numbers in your paper:

    IdentifierStatusTitle
    NCT04639375RecruitingPolio Vaccine (IPV) for SARS-CoV-2 and Prevention of Coronav…

    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.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.06.19.21257191 on medRxiv