Freeze-Drying Formulations Increased the Adenovirus and Poxvirus Vaccine Storage Times and Antigen Stabilities

Successful vaccines induce specific immune responses and protect against various viral and bacterial infections. Noninactivated vaccines, especially viral vector vaccines such as adenovirus and poxvirus vaccines, dominate the vaccine market because their viral particles are able to replicate and proliferate in vivo and produce lasting immunity in a manner similar to natural infection. One challenge of human and livestock vaccination is vaccine stability related to the antigenicity and infectivity. Freeze-drying is the typical method to maintain virus vaccine stability, while cold chain transportation is required for temperatures about 2 °C–8 °C. The financial and technological resource requirements hinder vaccine distribution in underdeveloped areas. In this study, we developed a freeze-drying formula consisting of bovine serum albumin (BSA), l-glutamic acid (L-Glu), polyethylene glycol (PEG), and dextran (DEX) to improve the thermal stability and activity of viral vaccines, including vaccinia recombinant vaccine (rTTV-OVA) and adenovirus vaccine (Ad5-ENV). We compared a panel of five different formulations (PEG: DEX: BSA: L-GLU = 50:9:0:0(#1), 50:5:4:0(#2), 50:10:9:0(#3), 50:0:0:9(#4), and 50:1:0:8(#5), respectively) and optimized the freeze-drying formula for rTTV-OVA and Ad5-ENV. We found that the freeze-drying formulations #2 and #3 could maintain rTTV-OVA infectivity at temperatures of 4 °C and 25 °C and that rTTV-OVA immunogenicity was retained during lyophilization. However, formulations #4 and #5 maintained Ad5-ENV infectivity under the same conditions, and Ad5-ENV immunogenicity had maximum retention with freeze-drying formulation #4. In summary, we developed new freeze-drying formulations that increased virus vaccine storage times and retained immunogenicity at an ambient temperature.