Single-Shot Ad26 Vaccine Protects Against SARS-CoV-2 in Rhesus Macaques

Mercado, Noe B.; Zahn, Roland; Wegmann, Frank; Loos, Carolin; Chandrashekar, Abishek; Yu, Jingyou; Liu, Jinyan; Peter, Lauren; McMahan, Katherine; Tostanoski, Lisa H.; He, Xuan; Martinez, David R.; Rutten, Lucy; Bos, Rinke; van Manen, Danielle; Vellinga, Jort; Custers, Jerome; Langedijk, Johannes P.; Kwaks, Ted; Bakkers, Mark J.G.; Zuijdgeest, David; Huber, Sietske K. Rosendahl; Atyeo, Caroline; Fischinger, Stephanie; Burke, John S.; Feldman, Jared; Hauser, Blake M.; Caradonna, Timothy M.; Bondzie, Esther A.; Dagotto, Gabriel; Gebre, Makda S.; Hoffman, Emily; Jacob-Dolan, Catherine; Kirilova, Marinela; Li, Zhenfeng; Lin, Zijin; Mahrokhian, Shant H.; Maxfield, Lori F.; Nampanya, Felix; Nityanandam, Ramya; Nkolola, Joseph P.; Patel, Shivani; Ventura, John D.; Verrington, Kaylee; Wan, Huahua; Pessaint, Laurent; Van Ry, Alex; Blade, Kelvin; Strasbaugh, Amanda; Cabus, Mehtap; Brown, Renita; Cook, Anthony; Zouantchangadou, Serge; Teow, Elyse; Andersen, Hanne; Lewis, Mark G.; Cai, Yongfei; Chen, Bing; Schmidt, Aaron G.; Reeves, R. Keith; Baric, Ralph S.; Lauffenburger, Douglas A.; Alter, Galit; Stoffels, Paul; Mammen, Mathai; Van Hoof, Johan; Schuitemaker, Hanneke; Barouch, Dan H.

A safe and effective vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) may be required to end the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic(1–8). For global deployment and pandemic control, a vaccine that requires only a single immunization would be optimal. Here we show the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of a single dose of adenovirus serotype 26 (Ad26) vector-based vaccines expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein in nonhuman primates. 52 rhesus macaques were immunized with Ad26 vectors encoding S variants or sham control and were challenged with SARS-CoV-2 by the intranasal and intratracheal routes(9,10). The optimal Ad26 vaccine induced robust neutralizing antibody responses and provided complete or near-complete protection in bronchoalveolar lavage and nasal swabs following SARS-CoV-2 challenge. Vaccine-elicited neutralizing antibody titers correlated with protective efficacy, suggesting an immune correlate of protection. These data demonstrate robust single-shot vaccine protection against SARS-CoV-2 in nonhuman primates. The optimal Ad26 vector-based vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, termed Ad26.COV2.S, is currently being evaluated in clinical trials.