Nonclinical toxicology study of recombinant-plasmid DNA anti-rabies vaccines

• Published in: Vaccine 2006-04, Vol.24 (15), p.2790-2798
• Main Authors: Kumar, P. Uday, Kumar, B. Dinesh, Annapurna, V.V., Krishna, T. Prasanna, Kalyanasundaram, S., Suresh, P., Harishankar, N., Jagadeesan, V., Hariharan, S., Naidu, A. Nadamuni, Krishnaswamy, Kamala, Rangarajan, P.N., Srinivasan, V.A., Reddy, G.S., Sesikeran, B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abhayrab; Animals; Applied microbiology; Biological and medical sciences; Biotech products; Biotechnology; Cell culture; Combination rabies vaccine (CRV); Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA rabies vaccine (DRV); Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hematology; Histopathology; Immunotoxicity; International regulations; ISO standards; Laboratory animals; Male; Males; Mice; Microbiology; Miscellaneous; Pathology; Pre-clinical toxicology; Rabies; Rabies Vaccines - administration & dosage; Rabies Vaccines - adverse effects; Rabies Vaccines - toxicity; Rabies virus; Safety evaluation; Studies; Toxicity Tests, Acute; Toxicity Tests, Chronic; Toxicology; Vaccines; Vaccines, antisera, therapeutical immunoglobulins and monoclonal antibodies (general aspects); Vaccines, DNA - administration & dosage; Vaccines, DNA - toxicity; Vaccines, Synthetic - administration & dosage; Vaccines, Synthetic - toxicity; Virology
• ISSN: 0264-410X; 1873-2518
• DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2006.01.002

The absence of standard guidelines from National and International regulatory agencies for the safety evaluation of biotechnology products challenges the ingenuity of toxicologists. At present, the development of standard pre-clinical toxicology protocols for such products is on an individual case basis. The present investigation is an attempt to evaluate the safety profile of the first indigenously developed DNA based anti-rabies vaccine in India. The test compounds were DNA rabies vaccine {DRV (100 μg)} and combination rabies vaccine (CRV (100 μg DRV and 1/50 dose of cell culture vaccine)), intended for clinical use by intramuscular route on 1, 7, 14 and 28 day. As per the regular mandatory requirements, the study has been designed to undertake acute (single dose—10 days), sub-chronic (repeat dose—28 days) and chronic (intended clinical dose—120 days) toxicity tests using three dose levels viz. therapeutic, average (2 × therapeutic dose) and highest dose (10 × therapeutic dose) exposure in Swiss Albino mice. The selection of the rodent model viz. Swiss Albino mice is based on affinity and rapid higher antibody response during the efficacy studies. Apart from physical, physiological, clinical, hematological and histopathology profiles of all target organs, the tier-I immunotoxicity parameters have also been monitored. There were no observational adverse effects even at levels of 10× therapeutic dose administration of DRV and CRV. The procedure also emphasizes on the designing of protocols for the products developed by recombinant technique.