Q3 · MEDICINE
Article
Author: Chen, Jianxin ; Li, Maohua ; Sun, Sean ; Gong, Sitao ; Hu, Yalin ; Ren, Wenlin ; Gao, Guang ; Zhao, Rongqing ; Fang, Feng ; Xia, Chenxi ; Chen, Yuxin ; Su, Junchi ; Gao, Wen ; Zhao, Gan ; Cheng, Xin ; Wang, Qi ; Chen, Jinggong ; He, Ailiang ; Sun, Hunter ; Jin, Xia ; Li, Min ; Sun, Yufei ; Sun, Le ; Gao, George F
The COVID-19 outbreak has become a global pandemic responsible for over 2,000,000 confirmed cases and over 126,000 deaths worldwide. In this study, we examined the immunogenicity of CHO-expressed recombinant SARS-CoV-2 S1-Fc fusion protein in mice, rabbits, and monkeys as a potential candidate for a COVID-19 vaccine. We demonstrate that the S1-Fc fusion protein is extremely immunogenic, as evidenced by strong antibody titers observed by day 7. Strong virus neutralizing activity was observed on day 14 in rabbits immunized with the S1-Fc fusion protein using a pseudovirus neutralization assay. Most importantly, in <20 days and three injections of the S1-Fc fusion protein, two monkeys developed higher virus neutralizing titers than a recovered COVID-19 patient in a live SARS-CoV-2 infection assay. Our data strongly suggests that the CHO-expressed SARS-CoV-2 S1-Fc recombinant protein could be a strong candidate for vaccine development against COVID-19.