Evaluation and Correlation of Rabies Vaccine Potency Using the National Institute of Health, Rapid Focus Fluorescent Inhibition, and Passive Hemagglutination Tests

Abstract

Rabies vaccine preparations are quantitatively assayed for potency using the in-vivo challenge National Institute of Health (NIH), the main test that consumes a high number of animals, takes a long time, and has wide variability. The Rapid focus fluorescent inhibition (RFFIT) and the passive hemagglutination (PHA) tests, the two serologically based tests, were also used for such purpose. In this study, we aimed to evaluate and correlate the potency of the NIH, RFFIT, and PHA tests according to the World Health Organization (WHO) validity criteria, aiming to validate the use of RFFIT or PHA test as a substitute to the NIH test for determining the potency of commercially available Rabies vaccine preparations. The results showed that, the three tests can be successfully used; however, a higher correlation between RFFIT and NIH than PHA and NIH was recorded (Pearson correlation = 1). The potency of rabies vaccine preparations using NIH, RFFIT, and PHA were 3.73, 3.51, and 4.50, respectively. NIH is the main test for the determination of vaccine potency carried out by conducting 25 experiments and consuming about 5,000 mice compared to 1,200 mice used with RFFIT and 1,000 mice used with PHA test. Taken together, we concluded that (i) in some tested preparations, both RFFIT and PHA tests gave comparable results, and they can be used interchangeably; (ii) RFFIT could successfully replace NIH test, but not PHA; (iii) RFFIT and PHA tests are faster, more accurate, more economic, and more sensitive than NIH; nevertheless, PHA needs further investigations; and (iv) both RFFIT and NIH tests complement and reinforce each other as they provide a comprehensive picture of the product potency.