DNA immunization with in silico predicted T-cell epitopes protects against lethal SARS-CoV-2 infection in K18-hACE2 mice

The global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic caused significant social and economic disruption worldwide, despite highly effective vaccines being developed at an unprecedented speed. Because the first licensed vaccines target only single B-cell antigens, antigenic drift could lead to loss of efficacy against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. Improving B-cell vaccines by including multiple T-cell epitopes could solve this problem. Here, we show that in silico predicted MHC class I/II ligands induce robust T-cell responses and protect against severe disease in genetically modified K18-hACE2/BL6 mice susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Publication: Frontiers

By: Gry Persson, Katherine H. Restori, Julie Hincheli Emdrup, Sophie Schussek, Michael Schantz Klausen, McKayla J. Nicol, Bhuvana Katkere, Birgitte Rønø, Girish Kirimanjeswara & Anders Bundgaard Sørensen