In recent years, the development of new vaccines such as nucleic acid vaccines, genetically engineered vaccines, and synthetic peptide vaccines has achieved rapid development. However, compared with traditional inactivated or live vaccines, these vaccines often have problems such as poor immunogenicity. Therefore, an adjuvant is needed to enhance its effect, and adjuvants have proven to be a key component in vaccines. There are many types of adjuvants, while currently no unified standard for the classification. At present, the most commonly used adjuvants are Aluminum adjuvant and Freund's adjuvant, but new generation vaccines will probably need new generation adjuvants. Thus, this review aims to showcase the current status of immune adjuvants, with the focus on immunomodulatory molecular adjuvant, antigen delivery adjuvant and compound adjuvant. This review provides new insights for the development of novel vaccine adjuvants.
Adjuvants, Immunologic/pharmacology* ; Freund's Adjuvant ; Vaccines ; Vaccines, Subunit

Vaccination is an effective method for preventing influenza, and adjuvants can enhance the immune response intensity and persistence of influenza vaccines. However, there are currently shortcomings in clinical adjuvant approvals, ineffectiveness against weak antigens, and a tendency to cause headaches. Therefore, the development of safe and effective novel adjuvants for influenza vaccines is particularly important to enhance vaccine immunogenicity and safety. Given the wide range of sources, high safety, and biodegradability of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM), some studies have described it as a vaccine adjuvant. This article reviewed the current status and challenges of influenza vaccine adjuvants, summarized the types of TCM adjuvants, the safety and immunomodulatory effects of natural active ingredients from TCM combined with influenza vaccines, the role of TCM adjuvants in antigen storage, antigen presentation capability, immune cells and cytokines, and immune responses, and analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of TCM adjuvants compared with small molecule adjuvants, with the aim of promoting the clinical development and commercialization of TCM adjuvants for influenza vaccines.
Humans ; Influenza Vaccines ; Adjuvants, Immunologic/pharmacology* ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Influenza, Human/prevention & control* ; Adjuvants, Pharmaceutic

In order to increase the ability of oil-emulsion adjuvant to stimulate cellular immunity, chitosan hydrochloride with positive charge was selected to stabilize oil-in-water emulsion (CHE). In this paper, model antigen ovalbumin was selected to prepare vaccines with emulsion adjuvant, commercial adjuvant or no adjuvant. The emulsion was characterized by measuring the particle size, electric potential and antigen adsorption rate. BALB/c mice were immunized by intramuscular injection. Serum antibody levels, the numbers of IL-4-secreting cells in splenocytes, cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response, and the expression of central memory T cells were measured to evaluate the immunostimulatory effect. The results showed that chitosan hydrochloride can effectively stabilize the emulsion. The emulsion size is about 600 nm, and the antigen adsorption rate is more than 90%. After immunization, CHE could increase serum antibodies levels and increase IL-4 secretion. Expression of CTL surface activation molecules was also increased to stimulate CTL response further and to increase the CD44⁺CD62L⁺ in T cells proportion. CHE as adjuvant can stimulate humoral and cellular immunity more efficiently, and is expected to extend the duration of protection.
Animals ; Mice ; Chitosan ; Interleukin-4 ; Emulsions ; Immunization ; Adjuvants, Immunologic/pharmacology* ; Antigens ; Mice, Inbred BALB C

Vaccines require optimal adjuvants including immunopotentiator and delivery systems to offer long term protection from infectious diseases in animals and man. Initially it was believed that adjuvants are responsible for promoting strong and sustainable antibody responses. Now it has been shown that adjuvants influence the isotype and avidity of antibody and also affect the properties of cell-mediated immunity. Mostly oil emulsions, lipopolysaccharides, polymers, saponins, liposomes, cytokines, ISCOMs (immunostimulating complexes), Freund's complete adjuvant, Freund's incomplete adjuvant, alums, bacterial toxins etc., are common adjuvants under investigation. Saponin based adjuvants have the ability to stimulate the cell mediated immune system as well as to enhance antibody production and have the advantage that only a low dose is needed for adjuvant activity. In the present study the importance of adjuvants, their role and the effect of saponin in immune system is reviewed.
Adjuvants, Immunologic ; pharmacology ; Animals ; Astragalus Plant ; ISCOMs ; pharmacology ; Immune System ; drug effects ; Oleanolic Acid ; analogs & derivatives ; Panax ; Sapogenins ; Saponins ; pharmacology

To determine whether lentinan could upregulate the expression of human-beta-defensin-2(HBD-2) in pulmonary epithelial cells (SPC-A-1), we stimulated pulmonary epithelial cells with lentinan and detected the expression of HBD-2mRNA by RT-PCR test. The results demonstrated that the expression of HBD-2mRNA in SPC-A-1 could be induced by lentinan in a concentration and time-dependent manner.
Adjuvants, Immunologic ; pharmacology ; Epithelial Cells ; metabolism ; Humans ; Lentinan ; pharmacology ; Lung ; cytology ; metabolism ; RNA, Messenger ; genetics ; metabolism ; beta-Defensins ; genetics ; metabolism

To compare different adjuvant formulation and explore the impact of Calcineurin B subunit(CnB) as adjuvant with a novel HBV protein particle (HBSS1) vaccine in mice, female C57BL/6 mice were immunized HBSS1 with Al(OH)3 only, or a normal dose (5 μg) CnB only, or (CnB+ Al(OH)3) mixture as the adjuvant. All immunized groups were primed twice at 4-week intervals; followed by boosting with recombinant adenoviral based HBV vaccine(rAdSS1) at 10-week intervals. We detected the antigen specific humoral response in mice, including total IgG antibody and IgG subtyping. Then, we characterized the specific cell-mediated immune (CMI) response by detection of γ-interferon secreting splenocytes after stimulaton with S or PreS1 peptide pools. No enhancement of immunity was found among the mice with 5 μg of CnB alone or combined with Al(OH), adjuvanted vaccine,which could not induce higher level of anti-PreS1 and anti-S antibodies and CMI than that of HBSS1 alone or Al(OH)3 adjuvanted vaccines. We concluded that CnB is not an effective adjuvant for a novel HBV subunit vaccine.
Adjuvants, Immunologic ; pharmacology ; Animals ; Calcineurin ; pharmacology ; Female ; Hepatitis B Vaccines ; immunology ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Protein Subunits

Many Chinese drugs (CHD) have showed their significant effects of integral immune-regulation, and lots of researches have conducted in recent years for exploring their mechanism from different levels, like cytological, molecular and genetic levels. In this paper, the relation between immune-regulation of CHD and Toll-like receptors/nuclear factor-kappaB (TLRs/NF-kappaB) signaling pathway was introduced in brief based upon the achievements of previous researches. It was pointed out that the two are closely related, to explore mechanism of CHD in this way is meaningful not only for further deepening the theoretical understanding of CHD's pharmacological immunoregulation, but also be practically facilitate for enhancing therapeutic efficacy of CHD and developing new CHD.
Adjuvants, Immunologic ; pharmacology ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Humans ; NF-kappa B ; immunology ; Signal Transduction ; drug effects ; Toll-Like Receptors ; immunology

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of vitamin D3 on polarization of monocyte macrophages induced by serum from patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). METHODS: Twenty AS naïve patients and 20 healthy controls from Wenzhou People's Hospital during January 2016 and December 2017 were enrolled. The macrophages were differentiated from THP1 cells induced by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), and then co-cultured with the serum from healthy subjects (control group) or AS patients. Vitamin D3 was added in the medium mixed with serum from AS patients. Flow cytometry was used to analyze the ratio of CD68 and CD206 positive cells, and RT-PCR was performed to detect the mRNA expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase(iNOS) and arginase-1(Arg-1). RESULTS: THP1 cells could be polarized into mononuclear-macrophages with the induction of PMA. The proportion of CD206 positive cells in AS-serum group was lower than that in the control group (=9.434, <0.05), while the proportion of CD68 positive cells was higher than that in the control group (=43.920, <0.05). The proportion of CD206 positive cells in vitamin D3 group was higher than that in AS-serum group (=8.895, <0.05), while the proportion of CD68 positive cells was lower than that in AS-serum group (=9.089, <0.05). mRNA expression of Arg-1 in AS-serum group was lower than that in the control group (=8.899, <0.05), while mRNA expression of iNOS was higher than that in the control group (=3.656, <0.05). mRNA expression of Arg-1 in vitamin D3 group was higher than that in AS-serum group (=6.219, <0.05), while mRNA expression of iNOS was lower than that in AS-serum group (=5.876, <0.05). CONCLUSIONS Vitamin D3 can regulate the polarization of mononuclear macrophages for immunoregulation in patients with AS.
Adjuvants, Immunologic ; pharmacology ; Cell Differentiation ; drug effects ; Cholecalciferol ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Monocytes ; drug effects ; Spondylitis, Ankylosing ; blood ; physiopathology

To investigate the specific anti-leukemia effect of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) induced by dendritic cells (DCs) activated by exosomes alone or in combination with CpG ODN in vitro and the feasibility of exosomes as remedial vaccine, the DCs induced from normal volunteer PBMNCs were divided into 7 groups. Three groups of them were added with the exosomes: Kexo (exosomes derived from K562 cells) or DCexo (exosomes derived from DCs induced from K562 cells) or FTexo (exosomes derived from DCs induced from K562 cells and pulsed by freeze-thawing antigen of K562 cells) as experimental groups (Kexo, DCexo and FTexo). The other three groups were added with CPG ODN while added the exosomes (Kexo, DCexo and FTexo), and were used as experimental groups also (Kexo+CpG, DCexo+CpG and FTexo+CpG). The seventh group DCs was added with nothing as blank control. These DCs above mentioned were cultured continuously for 72 hours. The T lymphocytes were co-cultured with DCs for another 72 hours to generate CTL. Then, the killing effects of them on K562 cells were determined by MTT assay. The results showed that all experimental groups pulsed by exosomes displayed stronger killing effect, compared with control group (p<0.05). DCexo and FTexo displayed stronger killing effect too, compared with Kexo (p<0.05). CPG ODN as an adjuvant could enhance the killing effect (p<0.05). It is concluded that the special killing effect on K562 cells can be induced by exosomes, CPG ODN as an adjuvant can enhance the killing effect. Exosome is hopeful as a remedial vaccine to be used for the leukemia therapy.
Adjuvants, Immunologic ; pharmacology ; Cancer Vaccines ; immunology ; Dendritic Cells ; immunology ; Exosomes ; immunology ; Humans ; K562 Cells ; Oligodeoxyribonucleotides ; immunology ; T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic ; immunology

Most pathogens initiate their infections at the human mucosal surface. Therefore, mucosal vaccination, especially through oral or intranasal administration routes, is highly desired for infectious diseases. Meanwhile, protein-based antigens provide a safer alternative to the whole pathogen or DNA based ones in vaccine development. However, the unique biopharmaceutical hurdles that intranasally or orally delivered protein vaccines need to overcome before they reach the sites of targeting, the relatively low immunogenicity, as well as the low stability of the protein antigens, require thoughtful and fine-tuned mucosal vaccine formulations, including the selection of immunostimulants, the identification of the suitable vaccine delivery system, and the determination of the exact composition and manufacturing conditions. This review aims to provide an up-to-date survey of the protein antigen-based vaccine formulation development, including the usage of immunostimulants and the optimization of vaccine delivery systems for intranasal and oral administrations.
Adjuvants, Immunologic ; pharmacology ; Administration, Intranasal ; Administration, Oral ; Antigens ; administration & dosage ; Drug Delivery Systems ; Humans ; Proteins ; administration & dosage ; Vaccination