Article
作者: Cen, Xiaobo ; Peng, Yong ; Li, Yuhua ; Bao, Linlin ; Tian, Zhixin ; Yang, Li ; Lin, Sheng ; Hong, Weiqi ; Song, Xiangrong ; Li, Haiyan ; Yang, Mengli ; Dai, Lunzhi ; Wei, Yuquan ; Wang, Guangyu ; Zhang, Kang ; Qin, Chuan ; Chen, Hua ; Wu, Min ; Wang, Youchun ; Lu, Guangwen ; Li, Gen ; Wang, Shunyi ; Xu, Yanfeng ; Peng, Xiaozhong ; Yu, Pin ; Zhang, Ziqi ; Li, Dan ; Guo, Wei ; Yao, Shaohua ; Shi, Ming ; Ma, Xuelei ; Li, Xue ; Zhao, Zhiwei ; Huang, Yong ; Luo, Jingwen ; Wang, Wei ; Li, Jiong ; Xue, Zhihong ; Lau, Johnson Yiu-Nam ; Cheng, Wei ; Jiang, Xiaohua ; He, Yanlin ; Wang, Haixuan ; Bi, Zhenfei ; Deng, Wei ; Qu, Yajin ; Liu, Hongqi ; Chen, Chong ; Lv, Qi ; Xu, Jingwen ; Huang, Weijin ; Zhao, Yuan ; Deng, Hongxin ; Huang, Canhua ; Wang, Guanpeng ; Yang, Yun ; Fan, Changfa ; Gong, Yanqiu ; Yu, Wenhai ; Yang, Jingyun ; Wang, Junbin ; Yang, Zhenglin ; Hu, Zhengtao ; Mo, Fei ; Gao, Hong ; Chen, Siyuan ; Shen, Guobo ; Zheng, Yue ; Li, Fengdi ; Yang, Jinliang ; Chen, Zimin ; Chen, Lu ; Lu, Shuaiyao ; Gou, Maling ; Qian, Zhiyong ; Tong, Aiping ; Yang, Fanli ; Kuang, Dexuan ; Luo, Min ; Ye, Fei ; Wang, Manni ; Lin, Panpan ; Wei, Xiawei ; Wang, Zhenling ; Wang, Fu-Sheng ; Lei, Hong
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes a respiratory disease called coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the spread of which has led to a pandemic. An effective preventive vaccine against this virus is urgently needed. As an essential step during infection, SARS-CoV-2 uses the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein to engage with the receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) on host cells1,2. Here we show that a recombinant vaccine that comprises residues 319-545 of the RBD of the spike protein induces a potent functional antibody response in immunized mice, rabbits and non-human primates (Macaca mulatta) as early as 7 or 14 days after the injection of a single vaccine dose. The sera from the immunized animals blocked the binding of the RBD to ACE2, which is expressed on the cell surface, and neutralized infection with a SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus and live SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. Notably, vaccination also provided protection in non-human primates to an in vivo challenge with SARS-CoV-2. We found increased levels of RBD-specific antibodies in the sera of patients with COVID-19. We show that several immune pathways and CD4 T lymphocytes are involved in the induction of the vaccine antibody response. Our findings highlight the importance of the RBD domain in the design of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and provide a rationale for the development of a protective vaccine through the induction of antibodies against the RBD domain.
