• Katlyn Lederer, Diana Castaño, Daniela Gómez Atria, Thomas H Oguin, Sidney Wang, Tomaz B Manzoni, Hiromi Muramatsu, Michael J Hogan, Fatima Amanat, Patrick Cherubin, Kendall A Lundgreen, Ying K Tam, Steven H Y Fan, Laurence C Eisenlohr, Ivan Maillard, Drew Weissman, Paul Bates, Florian Krammer, Gregory D Sempowski, Norbert Pardi, and Michela Locci.
• Department of Microbiology, Center for Research on Coronavirus and Other Emerging Pathogens, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
• Immunity. 2020 Dec 15; 53 (6): 1281-1295.e5.

AbstractThe deployment of effective vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is critical to eradicate the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Many licensed vaccines confer protection by inducing long-lived plasma cells (LLPCs) and memory B cells (MBCs), cell types canonically generated during germinal center (GC) reactions. Here, we directly compared two vaccine platforms-mRNA vaccines and a recombinant protein formulated with an MF59-like adjuvant-looking for their abilities to quantitatively and qualitatively shape SARS-CoV-2-specific primary GC responses over time. We demonstrated that a single immunization with SARS-CoV-2 mRNA, but not with the recombinant protein vaccine, elicited potent SARS-CoV-2-specific GC B and T follicular helper (Tfh) cell responses as well as LLPCs and MBCs. Importantly, GC responses strongly correlated with neutralizing antibody production. mRNA vaccines more efficiently induced key regulators of the Tfh cell program and influenced the functional properties of Tfh cells. Overall, this study identifies SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines as strong candidates for promoting robust GC-derived immune responses.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This article appears in the collection: COVID-19 and mRNA Vaccines.

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