Evaluating the possible genotoxicity of nanoaluminum incorporated in human vaccines and the potential protective role of nanocurcumin: an in vivo study

Abstract

For nearly 90 years, aluminum (Al) salts have been utilized as vaccination adjuvants. Nevertheless, there is a risk of adverse effects associated with the amount of nanoaluminum used in various national pediatric immunization regimens. This study aimed to investigate the possible genotoxic effects of nanoaluminum incorporated in human vaccines on the brains of newborn albino rats and whether nanocurcumin has a potential protective effect against this toxicity. Fifty newborn albino rats were randomly assigned to 5 groups, with 10 in each group. Groups 1 and 2 received "high" and "low" Al injections corresponding to either the American or Scandinavian pediatric immunization schedules, respectively, as opposed to the control rats (group 5) that received saline injections. Groups 3 and 4 received the same regimens as groups 1 and 2 in addition to oral nanocurcumin. The expression of both the cell breakdown gene tumor protein (P53) and the cell stress gene uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) was significantly greater in groups 1 and 2 than in group 5. Groups 1 and 2 exhibited severe DNA fragmentation, which was observed as DNA laddering. Nanocurcumin significantly reduced the expression of the P53 and UCP2 genes in groups 3 and 4, with very low or undetectable DNA laddering in both groups. Vaccination with nanoaluminum adjuvants can cause genotoxic effects, which can be mediated by the inflammatory response and oxidative stress, and nanocurcumin can protect against these toxic effects through the modulation of oxidative stress regulators and gene expression.

Keywords:

• DNA damage
• nanoaluminum
• aluminum adjuvants
• pediatric vaccination
• genotoxicity
• nanocurcumin
• oxidative stress

Authors’ contributions

NE: project administration, supervision; AA: conceptualization, metho­dology, investigation, funding acquisition, writing – original draft; SG: project administration, methodology, investigation, supervision; OS: investigation, methodology, resources, supervision; HI: investigation, methodology, resources, supervision; EM: writing – original draft, writing – review & editing; AM: writing – original draft, writing – review & editing.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest concerning this article.

Data availability statement

The data sets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by Cairo University & self-funded.