They used 4 types. Granted one is as you state the whole virus. The other 3 would involve s proteins to some extent:
The viral like particles are arguably antigens caused by the spikes proteins.
s protein version.
DNA version (basically AZ and JNJ vax)
Four different SARS-CoV vaccines were evaluated in these studies (Table 1). Two whole virus vaccines were evaluated; one was prepared in Vero tissue cultures, zonal centrifuged for purification, and double-inactivated with formalin and UV irradiation, the DI vaccine (DIV); it was tested with and without alum adjuvant [16]. The other whole virus vaccine was prepared in Vero cells, concentrated, purified, inactivated with beta propiolactone and packaged with alum adjuvant (BPV) [13]. A recombinant DNA spike (S) protein vaccine (SV) was produced in insect cells and purified by column chromatography was tested with and without alum adjuvant [17]. The fourth vaccine (the VLP vaccine) was a virus-like particle vaccine prepared by us as described previously; it contained the SARS-CoV spike protein (S) and the Nucleocapsid (N), envelope (E) and membrane (M) proteins from mouse hepatitis coronavirus (MHV) [20].
They used 4 types. Granted one is as you state the whole virus. The other 3 would involve s proteins to some extent:
Here’s the full text: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0035421