Evaluation of Aluminium Hydroxide Nanoparticles as an Efficient Adjuvant to Potentiate the Immune Response against Clostridium botulinum Serotypes C and D Toxoid Vaccines

Ziphezinhle Mbhele; Lungile Thwala; Thandeka Khoza; Faranani Ramagoma

doi:10.3390/vaccines11091473

Evaluation of Aluminium Hydroxide Nanoparticles as an Efficient Adjuvant to Potentiate the Immune Response against Clostridium botulinum Serotypes C and D Toxoid Vaccines

Vaccines (Basel). 2023 Sep 10;11(9):1473. doi: 10.3390/vaccines11091473.

Authors

Ziphezinhle Mbhele^{1

2}, Lungile Thwala^{1

3}, Thandeka Khoza², Faranani Ramagoma¹

Affiliations

¹ Onderstepoort Biological Products, 100 Old Soutpan Road, Onderstepoort, Pretoria 0110, South Africa.
² Discipline of Biochemistry, School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu Natal, Pietermaritzburg Campus, Private Bag X01, Scottsville 3209, South Africa.
³ Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, National Laser Centre, Pretoria 0001, South Africa.

Abstract

Clostridium botulinum serotypes C and D cause botulism in livestock, a neuroparalytic disease that results in substantial economic losses. Vaccination with aluminium-based toxoid vaccines is widely used to control the spread of botulism. Aluminium-based adjuvants are preferred owing to their apparent stimulation of the immune responses to toxoid vaccines when compared to other adjuvants. The aim of our study was to evaluate aluminium hydroxide nanoparticles as a potential substitute for alhydrogel in the botulism bivalent vaccine. Botulism vaccines were formulated with either alhydrogel or nanoalum and comparative efficacy between the two formulations was conducted by evaluating the immune response in vaccinated guinea pigs. A significant increase in immunological parameters was observed, with the antibody titres higher in the serum of guinea pigs (20 IU/mL of anti-BoNT C/D) injected with nanoalum-containing vaccine than guinea pigs inoculated with the standard alhydrogel-containing vaccine (8.7 IU/mL and 10 IU/mL of anti-BoNT C and anti-BoNT D, respectively). Additionally, the nanoalum-containing vaccine demonstrated potency in a multivalent vaccine (20 IU/mL of anti-BoNT C/D), while the standard alhydrogel-containing vaccine showed a decline in anti-BoNT C (5 IU/mL) antibody titres.

Keywords: alhydrogel; botulism; nanoalum; toxoids; vaccines.

Grants and funding

Ziphezinhle Mbhele would like to thank the Department of Science and Technology—National Research Foundation (DST-NRF), South Africa, for the grant holder-linked Professional Development Programme (PDP) with Grant UID 127779. Onderstepoort Biological Products funded the study.