RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Safety and Potency of COVIran Barekat Inactivated Vaccine Candidate for SARS-CoV-2: A Preclinical Study JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2021.06.10.447951 DO 10.1101/2021.06.10.447951 A1 Abdoli, Asghar A1 Aalizadeh, Reza A1 Aminianfar, Hossein A1 Kianmehr, Zahra A1 Azimi, Ebrahim A1 Emamipour, Nabbi A1 Jamshidi, Hamidreza A1 Hosseinpour, Mohammadreza A1 Taqavian, Mohammad A1 Jalili, Hasan YR 2021 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/06/10/2021.06.10.447951.abstract AB There is an urgent demand to manufacture an effective and safe vaccine to prevent SARS-CoV2 infection, which resulted in a global pandemic. In this study, we developed an inactivated whole-virus SARS-CoV-2 candidate vaccine named COVIran Barekat. Immunization at two different doses (3 µg or 5 µg per dose) elicited a high level of SARS-CoV-2 specific neutralizing antibodies in mice, rabbits, and non-human primates. The results show the safety profile in studied animals (include guinea pig, rabbit, mice, and monkeys). Rhesus macaques were immunized with the two-dose of 5 µg and 3 µg of the COVIran Barekat vaccine and showed highly efficient protection against 104 TCID50 of SARS-CoV-2 intratracheal challenge compared with the control group. These results highlight the COVIran Barekat vaccine as a potential candidate to induce a strong and potent immune response which may be a promising and feasible vaccine to protect against SARS-CoV2 infection.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.