Development of a hexavalent recombinant protein vaccine adjuvanted with Montanide ISA 50V and determination of its protective efficacy against acute toxoplasmosis

BackgroundToxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite that can infect almost all warm-blooded animals, avian species and humans. Toxoplasmosis is asymptomatic in healthy individuals, whereas it may lead to death in immune suppressed or deficient patients. A vaccine against T. gondii is required to prevent consequences of the infection. The aim of this study is to generate a multivalent recombinant protein vaccine against T. gondii.Methods49 previously discovered antigenic proteins of T gondii were evaluated by their expression level in E. coli and by comprehensive bioinformatics analyses to determine antigenic epitopes. Based on these analyses, six vaccine candidate proteins were selected to generate a hexavalent recombinant protein vaccine adjuvanted with Montanide ISA 50V. Humoral and cellular immune responses were determined by flow cytometry and ELISA. Vaccinated mice were challenged with T. gondii Ankara strain tachyzoites.ResultsIn mice vaccinated with hexavalent vaccine, strong total IgG (P<0.0001) and IgG2a (P<0.001) responses were induced compared to controls, the ratio of CD4(+) and CD8(+) T lymphocytes secreting IFN-gamma increased, and significantly higher extracellular IFN-gamma secretion was achieved compared to the controls (P<0.001). The survival time of the vaccinated mice increased to 8.382.13days which was significantly higher than controls (P<0.01).Conclusions Altogether, these results show that the hexavalent vaccine which is developed for the first time against T. gondii induced strong and balanced Th1 and Th2 immune responses as well as conferred significant protection against challenge with lethal toxoplasmosis in murine model.