Application of MPBT Assay for Multiplex Determination of Infectious Titers and for Selection of the Optimal Formulation for the Trivalent Novel Oral Poliovirus Vaccine
Authors: Manukyan Hasmik , Lal Manjari , Zhu Changcheng , Singh Olga , Lin Tsai-Lien , Tritama Erman , Chumakov Konstantin , Lee Shwu-Maan , Laassri Majid 
Published: June 2024

Recently, a multiplex PCR-based titration (MPBT) assay was developed for simultaneous determination of infectious titers of all three Sabin strains of the oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) to replace the conventional CCID50 assay, which is both time-consuming and laborious. The MPBT assay was shown to be reproducible, robust and sensitive. The conventional and MPBT assays showed similar results and sensitivity. The MPBT assay can be completed in two to three days, instead of ten days for the conventional assay. To prevent attenuated vaccine strains of poliovirus from reversion to virulence, a novel, genetically stable OPV (nOPV) was developed by modifying the genomes of conventional Sabin strains used in OPV. In this work, we evaluated the MPBT assay as a rapid screening tool to support trivalent nOPV (tnOPV) formulation development by simultaneous titration of the three nOPV strains to confirm stability as needed, for the selection of the lead tnOPV formulation candidate. We first assessed the ability of the MPBT assay to discriminate a 0.5 log10 titer difference by titrating the two tnOPV samples (undiluted and threefold-diluted) on the same plate. Once the assay was shown to be discriminating, we then tested different formulations of tnOPV drug products (DPs) that were subjected to different exposure times at 37 °C (untreated group and treated groups: 2 and 7 days at 37 °C), and to three freeze and thaw (FT) cycles. Final confirmation of the down selected formulation candidates was achieved by performing the conventional CCID50 assay, comparing the stability of untreated and treated groups and FT stability testing on the top three candidates. The results showed that the MPBT assay generates similar titers as the conventional assay. By testing two trivalent samples in the same plate, the assay can differentiate a 0.5 log10 difference between the titers of the tested nOPV samples. Also, the assay was able to detect the gradual degradation of nOPV viruses with different formulation compositions and under different time/temperature conditions and freeze/thaw cycles. We found that there were three tnOPV formulations which met the stability criteria of less than 0.5 log10 loss after 2 days’ exposure to 37 ℃ and after three FT cycles, maintaining the potency of all three serotypes in these formulations. The ability of the MPBT assay to titrate two tnOPV lots (six viruses) in the same plate makes it cheaper and gives it a higher throughput for rapid screening. The assay detected the gradual degradation of the tnOPV and was successful in the selection of optimal formulations for the tnOPV. The results demonstrated that the MPBT method can be used as a stability indicating assay to assess the thermal stability of the nOPV. It can be used for rapid virus titer determination during the vaccine manufacturing process, and in clinical trials. The MPBT assay can be automated and applied for other viruses, including those with no cytopathic effect.