Immunogenic complexes obtained from Salmonella typhi-murium and Salmonella typhi Ty2 by the bacterial acetone powder...

An immunogenic complex was isolated from Salmonella typhi-murium and another one from Salmonella typhi Ty2. Both were prepared by the bacterial acetone powder method which eliminated the cell wall, the DNA almost completely and the membrane phospholipids. The complexes were denominated "New Vaccines". The S. typhi-murium new vaccine induced, even at doses of 0.5 microgram dry weight per mouse, a high degree of protection against the challenge of the virulent microorganism. By immunoelectrophoresis, 21 antigen-antibody systems could be detected, two of them corresponding to O antigens. The S. typhi Ty2 new vaccine induced better protection than the standard vaccine (heat-phenol inactivated typhoid vaccine) when both vaccines were compared in the relative potency test. Moreover, the new vaccine had very low toxicity when inoculated in humans at doses of 1 microgram dry weight, able to elicite a high antibody titre (1/1,790 mean of 10 sera) in 75% of the tested population, estimated by the complement fixation test. In contrast, the standard vaccine induced a low antibody titre (1/222, mean of 5 sera) in 50% of the humans inoculated with 1 X 10(8) bacterial cells. The new vaccine did not induce undesirable effects whereas the standard vaccine induced an important inflammatory process in 100% of the cases, with intense local pain in 67% after 24 h post-first inoculation as well as other less severe symptoms.