A live attenuated virus-based intranasal COVID-19 vaccine provides rapid, prolonged, and broad protection against SARS-CoV-2.

Remarkable progress has been made in developing intramuscular vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2); however, they are limited with respect to eliciting local immunity in the respiratory tract, which is the primary infection site for SARS-CoV-2. To overcome the limitations of intramuscular vaccines, we constructed a nasal vaccine candidate based on an influenza vector by inserting a gene encoding the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, named CA4-dNS1-nCoV-RBD (dNS1-RBD). A preclinical study showed that in hamsters challenged 1 d after single-dose vaccination or 9 months after booster vaccination, dNS1-RBD largely mitigated lung pathology, with no loss of body weight. Moreover, such cellular immunity is relatively unimpaired for the most concerning SARS-CoV-2 variants, especially for the latest Omicron variant. In addition, this vaccine also provides cross-protection against H1N1 and H5N1 influenza viruses. The protective immune mechanism of dNS1-RBD could be attributed to the innate immune response in the nasal epithelium, local RBD-specific T cell response in the lung, and RBD-specific IgA and IgG response. Thus, this study demonstrates that the intranasally delivered dNS1-RBD vaccine candidate may offer an important addition to the fight against the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and influenza infection, compensating limitations of current intramuscular vaccines.

The Association between COVID-19-Related Wellbeing with Materialism and Perceived Threat.

The ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has had a profound impact on people's wellbeing. Here, we proposed that an individual characteristic might be associated with wellbeing; that is, materialism. Specifically, we conducted three studies (total N = 3219) to examine whether people with high levels of materialism would experience poorer wellbeing (i.e., anxiety and depression, in the current case). The results showed that materialism was positively associated with depression (Studies 1A, 1B and 2) and anxiety (Study 2). Moreover, such a relationship was mediated by people's perceived threat of COVID-19 (Study 2). These findings were observed in both Chinese and American people. The findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical contributions.

Rabbit Monoclonal Antibody Specifically Recognizing a Linear Epitope in the RBD of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein.

To date, SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has caused more than 188 million infections and 4.06 million deaths worldwide. The receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein has been regarded as an important target for vaccine and therapeutics development because it plays a key role in binding the human cell receptor ACE2 that is required for viral entry. However, it is not easy to detect RBD in Western blot using polyclonal antibody, suggesting that RBD may form a complicated conformation under native condition and bear rare linear epitope. So far, no linear epitope on RBD is reported. Thus, a monoclonal antibody (mAb) that recognizes linear epitope on RBD will become valuable. In the present study, an RBD-specific rabbit antibody named 9E1 was isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of immunized rabbit by RBD-specific single B cell sorting and mapped to a highly conserved linear epitope within twelve amino acids 480CNGVEGFNCYFP491 on RBD. 9E1 works well in Western blot on S protein and immunohistochemistry on the SARS-CoV-2 infected tissue sections. The results demonstrated that 9E1 can be used as a useful tool for pathological and functional studies of SARS-CoV-2.

Psychosomatic Symptoms and Neuroticism following COVID-19: The Role of Online Aggression toward a Stigmatized Group.

The present study investigated the effect of interpersonal mistreatment on the perpetrators' mental health. We proposed that the threat of COVID-19 will increase people's mental health problems through their on-line aggression toward stigmatized groups accused of spreading the disease and that there might be potential gender differences in such effects. We tested our predictions among a sample of U.S. residents (Study 1) and a large sample of Chinese residents living out of Hubei province (Study 2) during a heightened period of concern about COVID-19, February 2020. Specifically, we measured U.S. residents' on-line aggressive behaviors toward Chinese people (Study 1) and Chinese non-Hubei residents' on-line aggressive behaviors toward Hubei residents (Study 2) as well as their neuroticism (Study 1) and mental health states (Study 2). In line with our predictions, both studies showed that perceived infection of COVID-19 can induce on-line aggression toward stigmatized groups, thereby increasing people's mental health problems. Moreover, the relationship between COVID-19 vulnerability, on-line aggression, and psychosomatic symptoms was more prominent in men than in women. These results offer insights into people's responses toward COVID-19 and add to the understanding of people's mental and physical health during the epidemic stage of contagious diseases.

Dominate others, hurt self: Social dominance orientation predicts depression during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic threatens physical and psychological health. We examined whether social dominance orientation (SDO), a preference for inequality among social groups, contributes to mental health during the pandemic. In particular, we predicted that people high in SDO would experience higher levels of depression than others low in SDO. Our results (N = 2008) showed that SDO was positively associated with depression. In addition, participants' perceived lifestyle changes moderated the association between SDO and depression. We also discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the current work.