Protective efficacy of intranasal vaccination with subunit Sendai virus vaccine in mice.

Mice and rats were vaccinated with tween 80-ethyl ether disrupted subunit vaccine of Sendai virus by the subcutaneous or intranasal route. The intranasal vaccination rendered mice resistant to intranasal challenge with active Sendai virus as the subcutaneous vaccination did. The former vaccination induced low-titered hemagglutination-inhibiting (HI) antibody to the virus in 3 of 4 vaccinated mice, whereas the latter vaccination readily produced high-titered HI antibody. However, intranasally vaccinated rats produced no HI antibody and showed no resistance to the intranasal challenge, whereas subcutaneously vaccinated rats produced high-titered HI antibody and resisted to the intranasal challenge.