Development of a Time and Cost Benefit Antibody Binding Test-Based Method for Determination of Rabies Vaccine Potency

This study is an improvement on the antibody binding test, known as ABT method, to develop a simple and fast method in comparison with NIH for determination of rabies vaccine potency. In the current study, several commercial human and veterinary vaccines were tested using both modified ABT and NIH methods. The ED₅₀ was calculated using the probit method and the relative potency of each vaccine was measured based on the reference vaccine. The test was repeated four times to calculate the reproducibility of the method. Statistical analysis indicated that there was no significant difference between the result obtained from NIH and modified ABT method for either human or veterinary vaccines (p > 0.05). In addition, the linearity of the method (R²) was calculated as 0.94 by serial dilution of a test vaccine. Coefficient variances were determined as less than and more than 10% for the human and veterinary rabies vaccines, respectively. In conclusion, the findings suggest that the modified method could be considered as an alternative approach for rabies vaccine potency determination in in-process quality control tests at industrial scale. It is a time and cost benefit method and accuracy may further be increased by employing monoclonal antibodies against trimeric form of G glycoprotein. However, the use of serum samples may be useful compared with an artificial mix of antibodies because other components from the serum samples could have a positive impact on cell sensitivity and mimic more the complexity of the immune response. Although the modified test has solved a fundamental problem, it is still not sensitive enough for veterinary vaccine assessment and needs further modifications to obtain the acceptability criteria.