[Evaluation of the immunogenicity of meningococcal vaccines in experiments on mice]

The immunogenicity of 2 meningococcal vaccines, multicomponent vaccine produced at the Mechnikov Research Institute for Vaccines and Sera in Moscow and polysaccharide vaccine obtained from Merck Sharp & Dohme (USA), was evaluated on experimental meningococcal sepsis in mice, produced by the injection of meningococcal culture in mucin suspension. The protective effect of these 2 vaccines, expressed in terms of ED50, was 0.28 +/- 0.12 for the multicomponent vaccine and 0.25 +/- 0.24 for the polysaccharide vaccine; the challenge dose used in the test was 10 LD50 of the culture. The multicomponent vaccine gave the maximum immunological effect in a dose of 8 micrograms, while higher or lower doses induced a lesser increase in antibody titer and thus gave lower protection to mice against infection.