Characteristics of ideal vaccine adjuvants
Vaccine adjuvants are ingredients in vaccines added to improve the immune response after immunization. Modern vaccines usually contain only a portion of bacteria or viruses as their antigens and therefore require the help of adjuvants to induce a protective immune response. Vaccine adjuvants are of a diverse family, and hence, cannot be defined using a single integrated structure. They comprise of several naturally occurring or synthetic materials that boost the immunological effect of the antigen. This in return provides advantages such as, antigen dose reduction, cutback on the number of vaccinations, improving the quality of immune response, and in some cases potentially increasing the stability of the final vaccine product. Characteristics of ideal vaccine adjuvants The ideal vaccine adjuvant not only enhances the immune response, but also provides the organism with optimal protective immunity. Such vaccine adjuvants should have the following characteristics. Safe, no short-term a...