TABLE 1.
Mouse immunization and bleeding strategiesa
| Mouse group (n = 16/group) | Strategy |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| Prime (day 0) | Boost 1 (day 14) | Boost 2 (day 28) | |
| Vaccine groups | |||
| 1 | Ag (10 μg) | Ag (5 μg) | Ag (5 μg) |
| 2 | Ag/MPL | Ag/MPL | Ag/MPL |
| 3 | Ag/CpG | Ag/CpG | Ag/CpG |
| 4 | Ag/QS-21 | Ag/QS-21 | Ag/QS-21 |
| 5 | Ag/MCQ | Ag/MCQ | Ag/MCQ |
| Control groups | |||
| 6 | MPL | MPL | MPL |
| 7 | CpG | CpG | CpG |
| 8 | QS-21 | QS-21 | QS-21 |
| 9 | MCQ | MCQ | MCQ |
| 10 | 1× PBS | 1× PBS | 1× PBS |
 | |||
Female BALB/c mice (n = 160) were randomly distributed into 10 groups (each group containing 16 mice) and immunized subcutaneously at the base of the tail with 200 μl PfCelTOS (10 μg at prime and 5 μg at boost, based on the optimization approach) alone, as a nonadjuvanted vaccine group, or in combination with distinct adjuvants (based on the optimization approach), MPL (monophosphoryl lipid A) (10 μg/mouse), CpG ODN (synthetic oligodeoxynucleotides containing unmethylated CpG motifs) (10 μg/mouse), and QS-21 (Quillaja saponaria Molina fraction 21) (10 μg/mouse), alone and as a mixture (MCQ [MPL/CpG/QS-21]) (5 μg/mouse of each), as adjuvanted vaccine groups. Each control mouse received 1× PBS alone and MPL (10 μg/mouse), CpG ODN (10 μg/mouse), and QS-21 (10 μg/mouse) alone and as a mixture (MCQ) (5 μg/mouse of each) as negative controls. Serum samples were collected from the tail vein on days 10, 24, 38, and 180 after the first immunization. Ag, PfCelTOS antigen.