Arianna Hurtado Monzon, VIDO, University of Saskatchewan

Arianna M. Hurtado-Monzón1 , Akarin Asavajaru1 , Sabrina O'Krafka1,2 , Trina Racine1,3 , Milan Obradovic1 , Pooja Choudhary1 , Brenda L. Coleman 4,5 , Samira Mubareka6,7 , Allison McGeer4 and Arinjay Banerjee1,2,7,8 1Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), University of Saskatchewan, SK, Canada. 2Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, SK, Canada. 3School of Public Health, University of Saskatchewan, SK, Canada. 4Sinai Health, Toronto, ON, Canada. 5Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, ON, Canada 6Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Sunnybrook Research Institute and Shared Hospital Laboratory, Toronto, ON, Canada. 7Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, ON, Canada 8Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, BC, Canada.

Fighting & Responding

Zoonotic coronaviruses (CoVs) pose a serious risk of a future spillover of high consequence. The first point of entry into a new host for viruses is the cellular receptor. For SARS-CoV and SARSCOV-2, the spike (S) protein mediates viral entry into host cells by binding to the cellular receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). Multiple newly discovered CoVs utilize ACE2 as a receptor for entry and exhibit the ability to infect a wide range of species, including binding to the human ACE2 receptor. Preventing the binding of S with the ACE2 receptor can help prevent future CoV outbreaks. Neutralizing antibodies can block virus entry into a cell. These antibodies can be induced either by vaccines or by previous infection. It's crucial to understand the extent of immunity provided by both natural infection and vaccination. Knowing whether current vaccines can neutralize coronaviruses related to SARS-CoV-2 can help assess the likelihood of future coronavirus spill over and outbreaks in humans. To address this, we are developing a non-replicating Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (rVSV) based pseudovirus library expressing spike proteins from 19 coronaviruses. We have completed developing SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan strain, Omicron BA.2, Pangolin Guanxi, BANAL236, WIV1, and MERS-CoV S pseudotyped viruses. These pseudoviruses are being used to assess the breadth of protection conferred by SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccines using sera from Canadian patients. Our study will identify the risk posed by future coronavirus outbreaks and inform vaccine and drug development strategies