mechanisms and performances of adjuvants in vaccine immunogenicity

an adjuvant is a substance that is added to a vaccine to increase the body's immune response to the vaccine. vaccines containing adjuvants are tested for safety in clinical trials before they are licensed for used. the basic action of adjuvants is stimulating adaptive immune responses. adjuvants, recently licensed for human utlization, involve alum squalane oil or water emulsion, influenza virosomes, and few cytokines as ifn-γ and il-2. some adjuvants are currently under investigation such as dna motifs, monophosphoryl lipid a, cholera toxin (ct), e. coli heat labile toxin (lt), saponins, immunostimulating complexes (iscoms), liposomes, flt3 ligand as a pleotropic glycoprotein, non-ionic block copolymers. this paper is an overview of adjuvant mechanisms, most commonly used adjuvants, adjuvant formulations and adjuvant limitations.