Measurement of Free Polysaccharide in Tetanus Toxoid-Conjugate Vaccine Using Antibody/Ammonium Sulfate Precipitation

Measurement of Free Polysaccharide in Tetanus Toxoid-Conjugate Vaccine Using Antibody/Ammonium Sulfate Precipitation

A method that effectively precipitates capsular polysaccharide of Haemophilus influenzae type b (polyribosylribitol phosphate, PRP) conjugated to tetanus toxoid (TT), PRP TT in a liquid vaccine has been developed to measure free PRP present in TT-conjugate vaccine. The method involves adding anti-TT antibody and ammonium sulfate to precipitate PRP-TT conjugate and measuring free PRP in tile supernatant. This new method provides a complete precipitation of the total PRP-TT, and provides an accurate and reproducible measurements of free PRP. The accuracy of the assay was confirmed by spiking known amounts of unconjugated PRP to PRP-TT conjugate, and the new method was found to have no effect on free PRP while precipitating PRP-TT. The published acid precipitation method did not produce reproducible results due to incomplete precipitation of PRP-TT, especially when the vaccine is formulated in a salt-buffered solution.