Oral Delivery of SARS-CoV-2 DNA Vaccines Using Attenuated Salmonella typhimurium as a Carrier in Rat

The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is the disease that has been identified as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), but the prophylactic treatment of SARS-CoV-2 is still under investigation. The effective delivery of eukaryotic expression plasmids to the immune system’s inductive cells constitutes an essential requirement for generating effective DNA vaccines. Here, we have explored the use of Salmonella typhimurium as vehicles to deliver expression plasmids orally. The attenuated Salmonella phoP was constructed by the one-step gene inactivation method, and plasmid-encoded the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 was transform into the Salmonella phoP by electroporation. Western blot experiment was used for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 expression on 293T cells. Wistar rats were immunized orally with Salmonella that carried a eukaryotic expression plasmid once a week for three consecutive weeks. The ELISA was performed to measure the SARS-CoV-2 specific IgG at rat’s serum samples. pSARS-CoV-2 can be successfully expression on 293T cells, and all immunized animals generated immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, indicating that a Salmonella-based vaccine carrying the Spike gene can elicit SARS-CoV-2-specific secondary immune responses in rats. Oral delivery of SARS-CoV-2 DNA vaccines using attenuated Salmonella typhimurium may help develop a protective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 infection.