The adjuvant effect of levamisole on killed viral vaccines

To explore adjuvants that are capable of promoting Th1-biased immune response, we investigated the usefulness of levamisole (LMS) as one such adjuvant for two different preparations of killed viral vaccines, derived from the foot mouth disease virus (FMDV) or the porcine respiratory reproductive syndrome virus (PRRSV) and tested respectively in BALB/c or C57 BL/6 mice. The results showed that LMS induced different types of immune responses in the host, depending on its dosage. While a high level of serum IgG was induced by using LMS at 2%, the most robust T cell proliferation was induced with LMS at 0.5%. The Th1 and Th2 cytokine profiles, which tracked well with the antibody and T cell responses, were similarly influenced by the dose of LMS. Moreover, the enhanced T cell response correlated with increased expression of MHC and co-stimulatory molecules and decreased expression of the suppressors of cytokine signaling molecules (SOCS1 and SOCS3) in the spleen, suggesting that it is mediated by the antigen presentation, co-stimulator signaling, and cytokine production pathways. These results establish that LMS can be used to induce Th1-biased immune responses when combined with killed-virus-based antiviral vaccines and that such adjuvant effect depends on the optimal LMS dosage.