Article
作者: Lu, Dongshui ; Tu, Changchun ; Li, Entao ; Liu, Yan ; Guan, Shan ; Xu, Chuanfei ; Zhao, Gan ; Liu, Chang ; Ding, Yuan ; Li, Haibo ; Zhang, Weijun ; Rosenecker, Joseph ; Sui, Cheng ; Tang, Jie ; Wang, Bin ; Cheng, Ping ; Ou, Yangxue ; Gao, Yuwei ; Zou, Quanming ; Cai, Larry ; Sun, Si ; Pitard, Bruno ; Zuo, Qianfei ; Li, Chao ; Luo, Ping
The ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic represents a brutal reminder of the continual threat of mucosal infectious diseases. Mucosal immunity may provide robust protection at the predominant sites of SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, it remains unclear whether respiratory mucosal administration of DNA vaccines could confer protective immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 challenge due to insurmountable barriers posed by the airway. Here, we applied self-assembled peptide-poloxamine nanoparticles with mucus-penetrating properties for pulmonary inoculation of a COVID-19 DNA vaccine (pSpike/PP-sNp). The pSpike/PP-sNp not only displays superior gene transfection and favorable biocompatibility in the mouse airway, but also promotes a tripartite immunity consisting of systemic, cellular, and mucosal immune responses that are characterized by mucosal IgA secretion, high levels of neutralizing antibodies, and resident memory phenotype T-cell responses in the lungs of mice. Most importantly, immunization with pSpike/PP-sNp completely eliminates SARS-CoV-2 infection in both upper and lower respiratory tracts and enables 100% survival rate of mice following lethal SARS-CoV-2 challenge. Our findings indicate PP-sNp is a promising platform in mediating DNA vaccines to elicit all-around mucosal immunity against SARS-CoV-2.