Adjuvant
An adjuvant (from Latin, adiuvare: to aid) is a pharmacological or immunological agent that modifies the effect of other agents, such as a drug or vaccine. They are often included in vaccines to enhance the recipient's immune response to a supplied antigen, while keeping the injected foreign material to a minimum.[1][2]
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[edit] Immunologic adjuvants
Immunologic adjuvants are added to vaccines to stimulate the immune system's response to the target antigen, but do not in themselves confer immunity. Adjuvants can act in various ways in presenting an antigen to the immune system. Adjuvants can act as a depot for the antigen, presenting the antigen over a long period of time, thus maximizing the immune response before the body clears the antigen. Examples of depot type adjuvants are oil emulsions. Adjuvants can also act as an irritant which causes the body to recruit and amplify its immune response.[3] A tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis vaccine, for example, contains minute quantities of toxins produced by each of the target bacteria, but also contains some aluminium hydroxide.[4] Such aluminium salts are common adjuvants in vaccines sold in the United States and have been used in vaccines for over 70 years.[5] The body's immune system develops an antitoxin to the bacteria's toxins, not to the aluminium, but would not respond enough without the help of the aluminium adjuvant.
[edit] Adjuvants as stabilizing agents
Although immunological adjuvants have traditionally been viewed as substances that aid the immune response to antigen, adjuvants have also evolved as substances that can aid in stabilizing formulations of antigens, especially for vaccines administered for animal health.[3]
[edit] See also
- Adjuvant care
- Agricultural spray adjuvant
- Combination therapy
- Crop oil
- Freund's adjuvant
- Immunologic adjuvant
- Inactivated vaccine
- Pharmaceutic adjuvant
- Keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH)
[edit] References
- ^ "ABC News: Swine Flu Vaccine: What The Heck Is an Adjuvant, Anyway? (2009)". Abcnews.go.com. 2009-08-11. Retrieved 2010-06-14.
- ^ "Definition of immunological adjuvant -- NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms". www.cancer.gov. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
- ^ a b "Adjuvants as stabilizing agents". Benchmark Biolabs, Inc. Retrieved 3 March 2011.
- ^ , GlaxoSmithKline, 2009 Unknown parameter
|web=ignored (help); Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ Clapp, Tanya; Siebert, Paul; Chen, Dexiang; Jones Braun, Latoya (2011). "Vaccines with aluminium-containing adjuvants: Optimizing vaccine efficacy and thermal stability". Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences 100 (2): 388–401. doi:10.1002/jps.22284. PMID 20740674.