SARS-COV-2 recombinant Receptor-Binding-Domain (RBD) induces neutralizing antibodies against variant strains of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-1

• DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.08.081
• Publication Date: 2021-08-26T05:13:25Z
• Authors: John Lok Man Law; Michael Logan; Michael A. Joyce; Abdolamir Landi; Darren Hockman; Kevin Crawford; Janelle Johnson; Gerald LaChance; Holly A. Saffran; Justin Shields; Eve Hobart; Raelynn Brassard; Elena Arutyunova; Kanti Pabbaraju; Matthew Croxen; Graham Tipples; M. Joanne Lemieux; D. Lorne Tyrrell; Michael Houghton
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 03 medical and health sciences; SARS-CoV-2; Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus; COVID-19; Humans; Antibodies, Viral; Antibodies, Neutralizing; Article; 3. Good health

AbstractSARS-CoV-2 is the etiological agent of COVID19. There are currently several licensed vaccines approved for human use and most of them are targeting the spike protein (or virion) in the virion envelope to induce protective immunity. Recently, variants that spread more quickly have emerged. There is evidence that some of these variants are less sensitive to neutralizationin vitro, but it is not clear whether they can evade vaccine induced protection. In this study, we tested the utility of SARS-CoV-2 spike RBD as a vaccine antigen and explore the effect of formulation with Alum/MPLA or AddaS03 adjuvants. Our results indicate RBD induces high titers of neutralizing antibodies and activates strong cellular immune responses. There is also significant cross-neutralisation of variants B1.1.7 and B.1.351 and to a lesser extent, SARS-CoV-1. These results indicate that recombinant RBD can be a viable candidate as a stand-alone vaccine or as a booster shot to diversify our strategy for COVID19 protection.