Adjuvant Effect of Royal Jelly on HIV-1 Multi-Epitope Vaccine Candidate: Induction of Th1 Cytokine Pattern

Abstract

Studies show that, royal jelly as a naturally substance could improves immune responses. So, here, royal jelly as adjuvant was used in mixture with a recombinant multi-epitope HIV-1 vaccine model and cellular and humoral immune pattern was analyzed. Mice were immunized three times with recombinant HIV-1 vaccine that formulated in Royal jelly or mixture of Royal jelly/alum with two week interval. Then lymphocyte proliferation assessed with BrdU and IL-4, IFN-γ cytokines, total IgG antibodies and IgG1, IgG2a, IgG2b and IgM isotypes were assessed with ELISA. Results show Royal jellyas adjuvant increased lymphocyteproliferationand IFN-γ cytokine secretion versus control groups (P<0.05).Also, Royal jelly has increased total antibody and isotypes of antibody such as IgM, IgG1, IgG2a, and IgG2b (P<0.05).Overally, Royal jelly at dose of 10 µg could increase cellular and humoral immune responses alone and shows synergistic effect with alum adjuvant in the improvement of immunologic parameters. It is believed that bioactive molecules in Royal jelly could act as immunopotentiator as a part of mixture adjuvant and promote Th1 immune platform.