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?:abstract
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Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) causes severe acute respiratory symptoms Due to the lack of medical countermeasures, effective and safe vaccines against MERS-CoV infection are urgently required Although different types of candidate vaccines have been developed, their immunogenicity is limited, and the dose and administration route need optimization to achieve optimal protection We here investigated the potential use of human β-defensin 2 (HBD 2) as an adjuvant to enhance the protection provided by MERS-CoV vaccination We found that immunization of human dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (hDPP4)-transgenic (hDPP4-Tg) mice with spike protein receptor-binding domain (S RBD) conjugated with HBD 2 (S RBD-HBD 2) induced potent antigen (Ag)-specific adaptive immune responses and protected against MERS-CoV infection In addition, immunization with S RBD-HBD 2 alleviated progressive pulmonary fibrosis in the lungs of MERS-CoV-infected hDPP4-Tg mice and suppressed endoplasmic reticulum stress signaling activation upon viral infection Compared to intramuscular administration, intranasal administration of S RBD-HBD 2 induced more potent mucosal IgA responses and was more effective for protecting against intranasal MERS-CoV infection In conclusion, our findings suggest that HBD 2 potentiates Ag-specific immune responses against viral Ag and can be used as an adjuvant enhancing the immunogenicity of subunit vaccine candidates against MERS-CoV © 2020 by the authors Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland
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