Fábio Mambelli, Fábio V Marinho, Juvana M Andrade, Ana C V S C de Araujo, Rodrigo P F Abuna, Victor M R Fabri, Bruno P O Santos, João S da Silva, Mariana T Q de Magalhães, E Jane Homan, Luciana C C Leite, Greicy B M Dias, Nicoli Heck, Daniel A G B Mendes, Daniel S Mansur, André Báfica, Sergio C Oliveira
COVID-19 has accounted for more than 6 million deaths worldwide. Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), the existing tuberculosis vaccine, is known to induce heterologous effects over other infections due to trained immunity and has been proposed to be a potential strategy against SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this report, we constructed a recombinant BCG (rBCG) expressing domains of the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid and spike proteins (termed rBCG-ChD6), recognized as major candidates for vaccine development. We investigated whether rBCG-ChD6 immunization followed by a boost with the recombinant nucleocapsid and spike chimera (rChimera), together with alum, provided protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection in K18-hACE2 mice...
April 26, 2023: Journal of Immunology