Intranasal Prime-Boost with Spike Vectors Generates Antibody and T-Cell Responses at the Site of SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Long-lived, re-activatable immunity to SARS-CoV-2 and its emerging variants will rely on T cells recognizing conserved regions of viral proteins across strains. Heterologous prime-boost regimens can elicit elevated levels of circulating CD8+ T cells that provide a reservoir of first responders upon viral infection. Although most vaccines are currently delivered intramuscularly (IM), the initial site of infection is the nasal cavity.

Here, we tested the hypothesis that a heterologous prime and boost vaccine regimen delivered intranasally (IN) will generate improved immune responses locally at the site of virus infection compared to intramuscular vaccine/booster regimens.

In a transgenic human ACE2 murine model, both a Spike-expressing single-cycle adenovirus (SC-Ad) and an IFNß safety-enhanced replication-competent Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV) platform generated anti-Spike antibody and T-cell responses that diminished with age. Although SC-Ad-Spike boosted a prime with VSV-Spike-mIFNß, SC-Ad-Spike alone induced maximal levels of IgG, IgA, and CD8+ T-cell responses.

There were significant differences in T-cell responses in spleens compared to lungs, and the intranasal boost was significantly superior to the intramuscular boost in generating sentinel immune effectors at the site of the virus encounter in the lungs. These data show that serious consideration should be given to intranasal boosting with anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.