Immunogenic properties of Hepatitis A virus in two mouse strains. Preliminary results

Abstract

Hepatitis A (HA) is a viral disease caused by the hepatitis A virus (HAV) that occurs all over the world. It is transmitted by the faecal–oral route, and it is known that poor sanitary conditions increase the risk of HAV transmission. As no specific treatment for HA is available, prevention with vaccination strategies is the key to controlling the infection. Most of the available vaccines are inactivated vaccines adjuvanted with aluminium hydroxide. The slow growth of HAV and the need for an adjuvant make the vaccines’ economic cost relatively high and, what is more, there have been periods of vaccine shortages as demand has exceeded the production capacity. Recently, it has been demonstrated that HAV can be found encapsulated in a lipid membrane that resembles exosomes. Exosomes have been suggested to take part in Tcell stimulation and can induce an immune response without the need of an adjuvant. This study includes the preliminary experiments that will conclude with immunization with encapsulated HAV (eHAV) without adjuvant. In particular, herein we set up techniques to check an immunization protocol with HAV particles (with adjuvant) in two mouse strains (BALB/c and C75BL/6). These techniques include the proliferative capacity of spleen lymphocytes (ELISA), the antibody-secreting cells (ELISPOT) and the changes in the cell phenotype (flow cytometry). Although further studies remain to be done, the results obtained in the present study allow the defining of the mouse strain and obtention techniques to establish the immunization process.