Development of an ELISA for measuring the activity of tetanus toxoid in vaccines and comparison with the toxin neutralization test in mice

Abstract

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has been developed to measure anti-tetanus toxoid antibody levels in immunized guinea-pig sera as a useful alternative to the currently used toxin neutralization test (TNT) in determining the activity of the tetanus toxoid in vaccines. The ELISA was found to measure antibody levels as low as 5.8 x 10(-5) IU/ml. Furthermore, a comparison of the results from ELISA and TNT involving 132 different commercial vaccines showed a very good correlation (r = 0.94, p < 0.001) between antibody levels measured by both methods. The results suggest that the proposed ELISA is a reliable, simple and economical alternative to the TNT in mice for assessing the activity of tetanus toxoids in vaccines.