Notably, depletion of CD8+ T cells by inoculation of an anti-CD8-α antibody abolished the protection against either SARS-CoV-2 B.1.351 or B.1.1.529 infection in LNP-HLA-EPs + LNP-RBDbeta-immunized transgenic mice (Fig. 3i and Supplementary Fig. 9b), further verifying that the superiority in the protection of the dual vaccine design was dependent on cellular immunity. Here, CD8A is linked to infection.