Author: Gifford, David K ; Lin, Paulo J C ; Tseng, Chien-Te K ; Xu, Qiaobing ; Liang, Yuejin ; Saenkham-Huntsinger, Panatda ; McKay, Lindsay G A ; Peng, Bi-Hung ; Huang, Pinghan ; Carter, Brandon ; Dimitrakakis, Alexander ; Tam, Ying K ; Chen, Jinjin ; Tat, Vivian ; Hsu, Jason ; Liu, Ge ; Gaiha, Gaurav D ; Kaseke, Clarety ; Griffiths, Anthony

Licensed COVID-19 vaccines ameliorate viral infection by inducing production of neutralizing antibodies that bind the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein and inhibit viral cellular entry. However, the clinical effectiveness of these vaccines is transitory as viral variants escape antibody neutralization. Effective vaccines that solely rely upon a T cell response to combat SARS-CoV-2 infection could be transformational because they can utilize highly conserved short pan-variant peptide epitopes, but a mRNA-LNP T cell vaccine has not been shown to provide effective anti-SARS-CoV-2 prophylaxis. Here we show a mRNA-LNP vaccine (MIT-T-COVID) based on highly conserved short peptide epitopes activates CD8⁺ and CD4⁺ T cell responses that attenuate morbidity and prevent mortality in HLA-A*02:01 transgenic mice infected with SARS-CoV-2 Beta (B.1.351). We found CD8⁺ T cells in mice immunized with MIT-T-COVID vaccine significantly increased from 1.1% to 24.0% of total pulmonary nucleated cells prior to and at 7 days post infection (dpi), respectively, indicating dynamic recruitment of circulating specific T cells into the infected lungs. Mice immunized with MIT-T-COVID had 2.8 (2 dpi) and 3.3 (7 dpi) times more lung infiltrating CD8⁺ T cells than unimmunized mice. Mice immunized with MIT-T-COVID had 17.4 times more lung infiltrating CD4⁺ T cells than unimmunized mice (7 dpi). The undetectable specific antibody response in MIT-T-COVID-immunized mice demonstrates specific T cell responses alone can effectively attenuate the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our results suggest further study is merited for pan-variant T cell vaccines, including for individuals that cannot produce neutralizing antibodies or to help mitigate Long COVID.

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Indication	Highest Phase	Country/Location	Organization	Date
Coronavirus Infections	Preclinical	US	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	22 May 2023

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