Fig. 5

Detection of expression of immune genes in the respiratory tract of subunit protein or mRNA based vaccinated and virus challenged ferrets. One-year-old male ferrets were vaccinated twice at 3 weeks interval intranasally with liposomes entrapped SARS-CoV-2 S-RBD and N proteins or mRNA antigens and monosodium urate crystal adjuvant and challenged with SARS-CoV-2 intranasally. The samples of respiratory tract tissues expressing immune genes: A, B, G, H IFNα in A, G Lungs and B, H Nasal turbinates; C, D, I, J MCP1 in C, I Lungs and D, J Nasal turbinate at DPC 7. In Lungs E, K IL-17 and F, L IL-1β at DPC 14. Expressed genes were measured by RT-PCR. The standard double delta Ct values were normalized with GAPDH, and the values of mock uninfected ferret values were subtracted from the experimental group values. Each bar is the mean of 3 animals ± SEM. Asterisks refers to significant (*P < 0.05) difference between the indicated groups, analyzed by one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test