New and safe formulation for scorpion immunotherapy: Comparative study between saponin and FCA adjuvants associated to attenuated venom

Envenoming by scorpion is a major health problem in Maghreb regions as well as in several regions of the world. Immunotherapy is the only effective treatment for scorpion stings. The immune sera are obtained from hyper-immunized animals with a formulation of venom associated to Freund's Complete Adjuvant (FCA). This formulation seems to protect against several alterations in immunized animals leading to worsening of their health due to added toxicity of native venom and FCA adjuvant. This study aims to provide a more efficient and non-toxic alternative to this formulation. Two formulations of saponin or FCA associated to irradiated venom of Androctonus australis hector (Aah) were used to compare their safety and their efficiency to better enhance the antibody titers against toxic antigens. Both of these formulations were used in immunization schedule of three months. Blood samples were collected every week, cell count, myeloperoxydase (MPO) and eosinophil peroxidase (EPO) activities and specific antibody titers were evaluated. Four months after the last immunization, rabbits were challenged with increased doses of native Aah venom. Results showed that immunization with saponin formulation induced lower inflammatory cell activation as well as reduced MPO and EPO activities compared to that using FCA. The formulation of irradiated venom with saponin seems also to be more efficient in the activation of lymphocytes resulting in higher titers of specific IgG. The immunoprotective effect evaluation showed that the formulation using saponin seems to protected animals until 3 LD50 of native venom compared to that using FCA which protected only until 2 LD50. These results indicate that saponin formulation with irradiated antigen could be more efficient and safe immunizing preparation for the production of sera against scorpion envenomation. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.