Abstract
We assessed two strategies for preparing candidate vaccines against hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) caused mainly by infections of enterovirus (EV) 71 and coxsackievirus (CV) A16. We firstly design and optimize the potency of adjuvant combinations of emulsion-based delivery systems, using EV71 candidate vaccine as a model. We then perform immunogenicity studies in mice of EV71/CVA16 antigen combinations formulated with PELC/CpG. A single dose of inactivated EV71 virion (0.2 μg) emulsified in submicron particles was found (i) to induce potent antigen-specific neutralizing antibody responses and (ii) consistently to elicit broad antibody responses against EV71 neutralization epitopes. A single dose immunogenicity study of bivalent activated EV71/CVA16 virion formulated with either Alum or PELC/CpG adjuvant showed that CVA16 antigen failed to elicit CVA16 neutralizing antibody responses and did not affect EV71-specific neutralizing antibody responses. A boosting dose of emulsified EV71/CVA16 bivalent vaccine candidate was found to be necessary to achieve high seroconversion of CVA16-specific neutralizing antibody responses. The current results are important for the design and development of prophylactic vaccines against HFMD and other emerging infectious diseases.