Dual roles of a novel oncolytic viral vector-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine: preventing COVID-19 and treating tumor progression

Caligiuri, M. A.; Yu, J.; Sun, Y.; Dong, W.; Tian, L.; Rao, Y.; Qin, C.; Jaramillo, S. A.; Settles, E. W.; Ma, S.; Zhang, J.; Yu, K.; Xu, B.; Yan, J.; Ma, R.; Li, Z.; Dadwal, S. S.; Barker, B. M.; Keim, P. S.; Feng, P.

doi:10.1101/2021.06.07.447286

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2021.06.07.447286

Dual roles of a novel oncolytic viral vector-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine: preventing COVID-19 and treating tumor progression

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Abstract

The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is caused by infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Cancer patients are usually immunocompromised and thus are particularly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection resulting in COVID-19. Although many vaccines against COVID-19 are being preclinically or clinically tested or approved, none have yet been specifically developed for cancer patients or reported as having potential dual functions to prevent COVID-19 and treat cancer. Here, we confirmed that COVID-19 patients with cancer have low levels of antibodies against the spike (S) protein, a viral surface protein mediating the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into host cells, compared with COVID-19 patients without cancer. We developed an oncolytic herpes simplex virus-1 vector-based vaccine named oncolytic virus (OV)-spike. OV-spike induced abundant anti-S protein neutralization antibodies in both tumor-free and tumor-bearing mice, which inhibit infection of VSV-SARS-CoV-2 and wild-type (WT) live SARS-CoV-2 as well as the B.1.1.7 variant in vitro. In the tumor-bearing mice, OV-spike also inhibited tumor growth, leading to better survival in multiple preclinical tumor models than the untreated control. Furthermore, OV-spike induced anti-tumor immune response and SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell response without causing serious adverse events. Thus, OV-spike is a promising vaccine candidate for both preventing COVID-19 and enhancing the anti-tumor response. One Sentence SummaryA herpes oncolytic viral vector-based vaccine is a promising vaccine with dual roles in preventing COVID-19 and treating tumor progression

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Caligiuri, M. A., Yu, J., Sun, Y., Dong, W., Tian, L., Rao, Y., Qin, C., Jaramillo, S. A., Settles, E. W., Ma, S., Zhang, J., Yu, K., Xu, B., Yan, J., Ma, R., Li, Z., Dadwal, S. S., Barker, B. M., Keim, P. S., Feng, P.. 2021-06-07. Dual roles of a novel oncolytic viral vector-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine: preventing COVID-19 and treating tumor progression. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.07.447286

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