Adjuvants and the Mucosal Surface

Adjuvants are factors that increase immunogenicity of vaccine antigens. The term adjuvant come from the Latin adjuvare, meaning to assist or to help. The classic adjuvant was described by Freund in 1937 and consisted of paraffin oil and tubercle bacilli administered as a water-in-oil emulsion 

Recombinant vaccines Vaccines that can deliver and penetrate intestinal wall via M cells Tetanus toxin, Salmonella strains, vaccinia virus vector 

DNA vaccines Direct injection of nucleic acid contents HIV, malaria, influenza, hepatitis B virus, cancer 

Subunit vaccines Immunogenic proteins or peptide antigens customized to specific antigenic determinants are purified from tissue culture HIV, rabies virus, influenza virus, hepatitis B virus 

Microcarrier particles Can encapsulate antigen and be carried across the mucosal epithelium Biodegradable microspheres, liposomes, vims-hke particles, stimulating complexes (ISCOMM 

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