Safety and Immunogenicity of Live Attenuated Varicella Virus Vaccine(MAV/06 Strain)

ABSTRACT

We immunized sixty two healthy subjects with the five different viral titers (300, 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 plaque forming unit; pfu) of the MAV/06 strain of live attenuated Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) in order to gain sufficient information on safety and immuogenicity as a vaccine strain. Humoral immunity of all vaccine recipients was tested by the fluorescent antibody to membrane antigen (FAMA) assay and Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the quantitative detection of IgG antibody. We tested neutralized antibody in 62 subjects by plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT50). All of thirty two subjects with initial seronegative response had antibody by FAMA method at four weeks after immunization with four different preparations of dosage. The geometric mean titers (GMTs) of VZV antibody to membrane antigen was 160.9 in 6 subjects with 1500 pfu group; 83.3 in 14 subjects with 1000 pfu group 116.2 in 7 subjects with 500 pfu groups and 72.0 in 6 subjects with 300 pfu group. Thirty subjects who had VZV antibody at the time before immunization demonstrated elevated antibody titer by FAMA assay and PRNT50 test. Side reactions of the vaccination was not demonstrated in all cases.