Rabies virus-based COVID-19 vaccine CORAVAX™ induces high levels of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2

Drishya Kurup; Christoph Wirblich; Holly Ramage; Matthias J Schnell

doi:10.1038/s41541-020-00248-6

Rabies virus-based COVID-19 vaccine CORAVAX™ induces high levels of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2

NPJ Vaccines. 2020 Oct 16:5:98. doi: 10.1038/s41541-020-00248-6. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Drishya Kurup^#¹, Christoph Wirblich^#¹, Holly Ramage^{1

2}, Matthias J Schnell^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19107 USA.
² Jefferson Vaccine Center, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19107 USA.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

The recently emerged coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, is rapidly spreading in the world. The exponentially expanding threat of SARS-CoV-2 to global health highlights the urgent need for a vaccine. Herein we show the rapid development of a novel, highly efficient, and safe COVID-19 vaccine using a rabies virus-based vector that has proven to be an efficient vaccine against several emerging infectious diseases. This study reports that both a live and an inactivated rabies virus containing the SARS-CoV-2 spike S1 protein induces potent virus-neutralizing antibodies at much higher levels than seen in the sera of convalescent patients. In summary, the results provided here warrant further development of this safe and established vaccine platform against COVID-19.

Keywords: Infectious diseases; Preclinical research.