Modulation of HIV-1 immunity by adjuvants

Moody, M. Anthony

The word 'adjuvant' derives from the French adjuvant, which itself derives from the Latin adjuvate that can be translated to 'helper'. The term was first used in a modern vaccine context by Gaston Ramon of Institut Pasteur in a series of papers in the 1920s (e.g., [1 && ,2,3 && ]) that established the use of adjuvants for eliciting high-titer antitoxin responses. Since that time, many compounds and formulations have been tested for their ability to adjuvant a vaccine response, with the development of new adjuvants paralleling an increased understanding of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and their role in recruiting and directing the immune system. An adjuvant is a compound, formulation, preparation, or delivery system that enhances or modifies the immunogenicity of the primary antigen in a vaccine. Adjuvants perform this function in a variety of ways, but nearly all involve the triggering of PRRs to stimulate the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system. This is accomplished in one of two ways -through the incorporation of active compounds in a vaccine formulation (e.g., formulating a protein immunogen in a liposome containing a TLR4 agonist) or by incorporating elements in the vaccine that result in the production of immune stimulants (e.g., addition of plasmids expressing cytokines in a DNA vaccine regimen).