Studying the Effects of Naloxone-Alum Adjuvant Mixture on Cytokines in Model of Multi- Epitope Vaccine in HIV-1

Cytokines have important roles in the control of bacterial and viral infections such as HIV-1. Interleukin 17 which is secreted by Th17 is one of these cytokines with a special role in controlling microbial infections. In the present study, adjuvant activity of Alum and Naloxone mixture has been studied on immune responses, especially IL-17 cytokine. Naloxone and Alum adjuvant are mixed with 10 µg of recombinant vaccine HIV-1-gag-pol-tat-env. Experimental groups, consisting of 36 inbred male Balb/c mice divided into six groups, were injected subcutaneouslyat days 0, 14 and 28 with total volume of 200 µl. 2 weeks after final injection, mouse spleens were removed in sterile conditions and used to prepare suspensions. Lymphocyte proliferation responses were evaluated with Brdu test and evaluation of cytokines IL-4, IL-17 and INF-γ were completed using ELISA kit, plus total antibody and antibody isotopes IgG1 and IgG2a using ELISA test. All results show that the mixture of Alum with Naloxone increased cellular immune parameters and specially raised interleukin 17 which illustrated a significant difference with other groups. It seems that Alum and Naloxone mixture could control viral infections by affecting the Th17 pathway in which IL17 cytokine has a critical role.