Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 provides low-level cross-protection against common cold coronaviruses in mouse and non-human primate animal models

The common cold coronaviruses are a source of ongoing morbidity and mortality particularly among elderly and immunocompromised individuals. While cross-reactive immune responses against multiple coronaviruses have been described following severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and vaccination, it remains unclear if these confer any degree of cross-protection against the common cold coronaviruses. A recombinant fowl adenovirus vaccine expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (FAdV-9-S19) was generated, and protection from SARS-CoV-2 challenge was shown in K18-hACE2 mice. Vaccinated mice were also challenged with the common cold coronaviruses human coronavirus (HCoV)-OC43 and HCoV-NL63 by the intranasal route, and viral shedding and lung burden were reduced in these groups compared to unvaccinated animals. Histopathological analysis of lung tissues revealed significantly less inflammation and lower pathology scores in mice that received FAdV-9-S19 . Because no mouse model for the coronavirus HCoV-229E exists, we vaccinated and challenged cynomolgus macaques to evaluate cross-protection against HCoV-229E. Animals were monitored for clinical signs of disease and viral shedding. Infectious virus was detected in both groups throughout the course of infection; however, vaccinated animals showed reduced viral shedding at multiple time points after infection. Histopathological analysis of lung tissues following challenge also indicated a more moderate disease in the vaccinated animals. Therefore, vaccination with FAdV-9-S19 also provided a moderate cross-protection against HCoV-229E disease in the cynomolgus macaques infection model. Our study demonstrates that vaccination with a recombinant fowl adenovirus expressing SARS-CoV-2 spike protein can provide a low-level cross-protection against beta- and alphacoronaviruses. These findings are important for the design of future pan-coronavirus vaccines.IMPORTANCEThe common cold coronaviruses are a source of ongoing morbidity and mortality particularly among elderly and immunocompromised individuals, and no vaccine is currently available. Cross-reactive immune responses have been described following severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccination; however, it remains unclear what degree of cross-protection they confer against the common cold coronaviruses. We demonstrate that both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses provide a low-level cross-protection, resulting in reduced viral load and pathology for the common cold coronaviruses OC43 and NL63 in mouse models. Additionally, we present a novel non-human primate (NHP) model of infection with the common cold coronavirus 229E, demonstrating that it mimics the disease observed in humans and can serve as a model for future vaccine studies, as cross-protection was also observed. This is significant as it suggests that current vaccines could provide a low-level protection against other coronaviruses and could serve as part of vaccination strategy against future novel coronaviruses.