Antibody-mediated protection against MERS-CoV in the murine model

New, R.R.C. and Moore, B.D. and Butcher, W. and Mahood, R. and Lever, M.S. and Smither, S. and O'Brien, L. and Weller, S.A. and Bayliss, M. and Gibson, L.C.D. and Macleod, C. and Bogus, M. and Harvey, R. and Almond, N. and Williamson, E.D. (2019) Antibody-mediated protection against MERS-CoV in the murine model. Vaccine, 37 (30). pp. 4094-4102. ISSN 1873-2518 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.05.074)

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Abstract

Murine antisera with neutralising activity for the coronavirus causative of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) were induced by immunisation of Balb/c mice with the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the viral Spike protein. The murine antisera induced were fully-neutralising in vitro for two separate clinical strains of the MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV). To test the neutralising capacity of these antisera in vivo, susceptibility to MERS-CoV was induced in naive recipient Balb/c mice by the administration of an adenovirus vector expressing the human DPP4 receptor (Ad5-hDPP4) for MERS-CoV, prior to the passive transfer of the RBD-specific murine antisera to the transduced mice. Subsequent challenge of the recipient transduced mice by the intra-nasal route with a clinical isolate of the MERS-CoV resulted in a significantly reduced viral load in their lungs, compared with transduced mice receiving a negative control antibody. The murine antisera used were derived from mice which had been primed sub-cutaneously with a recombinant fusion of RBD with a human IgG Fc tag (RBD-Fc), adsorbed to calcium phosphate microcrystals and then boosted by the oral route with the same fusion protein in reverse micelles. The data gained indicate that this dual-route vaccination with novel formulations of the RBD-Fc, induced systemic and mucosal anti-viral immunity with demonstrated in vitro and in vivo neutralisation capacity for clinical strains of MERS-CoV.

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