Animal studies

Nine groups of five female, eight weeks old Wistar rat models provided by the Laboratory Animal Science Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Karaj, Iran were prepared. A total of 45 rats were divided into nine groups (each containing 5 rats). Some groups received two doses of vaccines on days 0 and 28, while others received three doses on days 0, 28, and 56. A detailed description of the study groups stratified by the vaccine they had been received is demonstrated in Table ​Table1.1. All animal studies were conducted under the approval of animal ethics committee guidelines of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (Tehran, Iran; ethical code: IR.ACECR.IBCRC.REC.1399.016), and were performed according to the ARRIVE guidelines. A special effort was made to keep to a minimum necessary the number of animals to achieve adequate significance.

The vaccine type, dose numbers, and the days of injection among study groups.