[Perfection of methodical approaches to designing vaccines against tick-borne encephalitis]

The protective properties of experimental vaccine against tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) were studied. The vaccine was prepared by conjugating colloid gold with soluble TBE antigen. The protective properties of experimental and commercial vaccines were compared by the mean survival time and protection coefficients after one and three vaccinations of mice infected in doses of 100,000 and 10,000 LD50. In animals immunized with experimental vaccine the protection coefficient and mean survival time were, respectively, 1.3-1.5 times and 10-30% higher than in mice immunized with commercial vaccine. Assessment of the therapeutic activity of antibodies induced by the experimental and commercial vaccines after 1 and 3 immunizations showed the mean survival time to be 1.2-1.7 times longer in animals injected antibodies from mice immunized with the experimental vaccine.