TY - JOUR T1 - A live attenuated vaccine confers superior mucosal and systemic immunity to SARS-CoV-2 variants JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2022.05.16.492138 SP - 2022.05.16.492138 AU - Geraldine Nouailles AU - Julia M. Adler AU - Peter Pennitz AU - Stefan Peidli AU - Gustavo Teixeira Alves AU - Morris Baumgart AU - Judith Bushe AU - Anne Voss AU - Alina Langenhagen AU - Fabian Pott AU - Julia Kazmierski AU - Cengiz Goekeri AU - Szandor Simmons AU - Na Xing AU - Christine Langner AU - Ricardo Martin Vidal AU - Azza Abdelgawad AU - Susanne Herwig AU - Günter Cichon AU - Daniela Niemeyer AU - Christian Drosten AU - Christine Goffinet AU - Markus Landthaler AU - Nils Blüthgen AU - Haibo Wu AU - Martin Witzenrath AU - Achim D. Gruber AU - Samantha D. Praktiknjo AU - Nikolaus Osterrieder AU - Emanuel Wyler AU - Dusan Kunec AU - Jakob Trimpert Y1 - 2022/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/05/16/2022.05.16.492138.abstract N2 - Vaccines are a cornerstone in COVID-19 pandemic management. Here, we compare immune responses to and preclinical efficacy of the mRNA vaccine BNT162b2, an adenovirus-vectored spike vaccine, and the live-attenuated-virus vaccine candidate sCPD9 after single and double vaccination in Syrian hamsters. All regimens containing sCPD9 showed superior efficacy. The robust immunity elicited by sCPD9 was evident in a wide range of immune parameters after challenge with heterologous SARS-CoV-2 including rapid viral clearance, reduced tissue damage, fast differentiation of pre-plasmablasts, strong systemic and mucosal humoral responses, and rapid recall of memory T cells from lung tissue. Our results demonstrate that use of live-attenuated vaccines may offer advantages over available COVID-19 vaccines, specifically when applied as booster, and may provide a solution for containment of the COVID-19 pandemic.Competing Interest StatementRelated to this work, Freie Universität Berlin has filed a patent application for the use of sCPD9 as vaccine in humans. In this application, JT, NO and DK are named as inventors of sCPD9. Freie Universität Berlin is collaborating with RocketVax Inc. for further development of sCPD9 and receives funding for research. Independent of this work GN has received project funding from Biotest AG. Independent of this work MW received funding for research from Bayer Health Care, Biotest, Pantherna, Vaxxilon, and for lectures and advisory from Alexion, Aptarion, Astra Zeneca, Bayer Health Care, Berlin Chemie, Biotest, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Glaxo Smith Kline, Insmed, Novartis, Teva and Vaxxilon. The other authors declare that they have no competing interest. ER -