"When US vaccine advisers meet this week, they will turn their spotlight on little-known ingredients that are crucial to the effectiveness of many vaccines: adjuvants. Adjuvants are compounds that boost immune responses, improving the ability of vaccines to elicit long-lasting immunity against infectious diseases. At this week's meeting, the US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is expected to discuss aluminium, an adjuvant widely used in inoculations against diphtheria, tetanus and hepatitis B, among others."
"Adjuvants can work in different ways. Some adjuvants trigger low levels of inflammation at the injection site, thereby boosting recruitment of immune cells to where they are needed and encouraging the cells to linger there. Others are more specific, activating molecular signalling pathways in certain classes of immune cells. Aluminium is in the first category, and its vaccine-boosting properties have been known for more than a century, says Irvine. Decades of use and scrutiny by regulators have clearly established that"
Adjuvants are compounds that boost immune responses and improve vaccines' ability to elicit long-lasting immunity against infectious diseases. The US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is expected to discuss aluminium, a widely used adjuvant in vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus and hepatitis B. Hundreds of millions of people have received vaccines containing small amounts of aluminium over the past century. Researchers are developing new adjuvants designed to stimulate responses against specific pathogens, potentially aiding vaccines for tuberculosis, malaria and viruses such as HIV. Different adjuvants act by inducing local inflammation or by activating molecular signalling pathways in immune cells. Aluminium triggers low-level inflammation and has a century-long safety record under regulatory scrutiny.
Read at www.nature.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]