Comparison of Immune Responses between Inactivated and mRNA SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines Used for a Booster Dose in Mice

A large amount of real-world data suggests that the emergence of variants of concern (VOCs) has brought new challenges to the fight against SARS-CoV-2 because the immune protection elicited by the existing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines was weakened. In response to the VOCs, it is necessary to advocate for the administration of booster vaccine doses to extend the effectiveness of vaccines and enhance neutralization titers. In this study, the immune effects of mRNA vaccines based on the WT (prototypic strain) and omicron (B1.1.529) strains for use as booster vaccines were investigated in mice. It was determined that with two-dose inactivated vaccine priming, boosting with mRNA vaccines could elevate IgG titers, enhance cell-mediated immunity, and provide immune protection against the corresponding variants, but cross-protection against distinct strains was inferior. This study comprehensively describes the differences in the mice boosted with mRNA vaccines based on the WT strain and the omicron strain, a harmful VOC that has resulted in a sharp rise in the number of infections, and reveals the most efficacious vaccination strategy against omicron and future SARS-CoV-2 variants.