BNT162b2 Vaccine Encoding the SARS-CoV-2 P2 S Protects Transgenic hACE2 Mice against COVID-19

Rui-Ru Ji; Yajin Qu; Hua Zhu; Yumei Yang; Annette B Vogel; Ugur Sahin; Chuan Qin; Aimin Hui

doi:10.3390/vaccines9040324

BNT162b2 Vaccine Encoding the SARS-CoV-2 P2 S Protects Transgenic hACE2 Mice against COVID-19

Vaccines (Basel). 2021 Apr 1;9(4):324. doi: 10.3390/vaccines9040324.

Authors

Rui-Ru Ji¹, Yajin Qu², Hua Zhu², Yumei Yang¹, Annette B Vogel³, Ugur Sahin^{3

4}, Chuan Qin², Aimin Hui¹

Affiliations

¹ Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Industrial Development, Co. Ltd., 1289 Yishan Road, Shanghai 200233, China.
² NHC Key Laboratory of Human Disease Comparative Medicine, Beijing Key Laboratory for Animal Models of Emerging and Remerging Infectious Diseases, Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Comparative Medicine Center, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, China.
³ BioNTech, An der Goldgrube 12, 55131 Mainz, Germany.
⁴ TRON gGmbH-Translational Oncology at the University Medical Centre of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Freiligrathstraße 12, 55131 Mainz, Germany.

Abstract

BNT162b2 is a highly efficacious mRNA vaccine approved to prevent COVID-19. This brief report describes the immunogenicity and anti-viral protective effect of BNT162b2 in hACE2 transgenic mice. Prime-boost immunization with BNT162b2 elicited high titers in neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, which correlated with viral clearance and alleviated lung lesions in these mice after viral challenge.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; challenge study; efficacy; immunogenicity; mRNA vaccine.