Local tolerance and systemic toxicity of single and repeated intramuscular administrations of two different formulations of the RTS,S malaria candidate vaccine in rabbits.

RTS,S malaria antigen is weakly immunogenic as such and needs to be formulated with an adjuvant to improve the magnitude and duration of the immune responses to RTS,S. Two Adjuvant Systems, AS01 and AS02 were evaluated during the development of the RTS,S vaccine. The evaluation included non-clinical studies in rabbits to evaluate the local intramuscular tolerance following administration on a single occasion, and the local and systemic effects following repeated administrations of RTS,S/AS01 or RTS,S/AS02 formulations. In the first study, rabbits were injected on one occasion with RTS,S/AS01, RTS,S/AS02 or controls, and the local intramuscular tolerance was evaluated up to 3 days after injection. In the second study, the different formulations were injected on Days 0, 14, 28 and 42. General health status, haematology and blood chemistry parameters were monitored on a regular basis. Macroscopic and microscopic evaluations were made after termination of the study. No sign of toxicity was detected following single or repeated administrations of the adjuvanted RTS,S formulations. Changes in haematology or clinical chemistry parameters were indicative of a developing immune response in the groups receiving either RTS,S formulation. All examined parameters returned to normal within 28 days after the last injection. The absence of toxicological effects following the injection of RTS,S/AS01 or RTS,S/AS02 in rabbits was supportive of further clinical evaluation of these two formulations.