Functional antigen fragment of tetanus toxin and tetanus vaccine

摘要

A functional fragment antigen of tetanus toxin characterized in that the antigen comprises a fragment which is substantially the same as at least one type of the fragments obtained by cleaving at least one of the peptide bonds formed between the amino acid residues in the partial amino acid sequence present between the two cysteine residues participating in the disulfide bridge present on the N-terminal side in the full-length amino acid sequence of a full-length tetanus toxin molecule, also cleaving the disulfide bridge itself, and further cleaving the non-covalent bonds between the amino acid residues that constitute the toxin molecule peptide, that it has a molecular weight of 90,000 to 110,000 as determined by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and an isoelectric point of 7.25+/-0.5 as determined by isoelectric electrophoresis, and that it has an immunogenicity substantially equal to that of a full-length tetanus toxin molecule. This antigen keeps an immunogenicity as a tetanus vaccine antigen and is remarkably reduced in side effects. The invention also provides a process for the mass production of the functional fragment antigen, a vaccine containing this antigen, and a mixed vaccine comprising the above vaccine and a different vaccine. IMAGE