Combination adjuvants: The next generation of adjuvants?

Abstract

Adjuvants are critical components of many vaccines. The majority of existing vaccines contain only a single adjuvant. Due to their inherent limitations, no single adjuvant is capable of inducing all the protective immune responses required in the many different vaccines. Consequently, investigators are exploring the potential of using multiple adjuvants (“cocktails”) in a vaccine. An emerging paradigm is that careful selection of adjuvant combinations can result in complimentary and even synergistic enhancement of immune responses to vaccines. This approach is promising and presents tremendous opportunities for vaccinologists to tailor immune responses for specific vaccines. Combination adjuvants at different stages of development and their potential in veterinary medicine will be discussed.