What does adjuvant mean in a vaccine?

An adjuvant is an ingredient used in some vaccines that helps create a stronger immune response in people receiving the vaccine. In other words, adjuvants help vaccines work better.

What is an adjuvant and examples?

Adjuvants augment, stimulate, potentiate, enhance, activate, or modulate the immune response at either cellular or humoral level. Best known examples include Freund’s adjuvant, Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG), Corynebacterium parvum; all of which contain bacterial antigen.

What types of vaccines require adjuvants?

During the 1930’s aluminum salts were for the first time used as adjuvants in human vaccines against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus and are now also found in vaccines against hepatitis A and B, Haemophilus influenzae type b, pneumococcus and human papilloma virus.

What adjuvants are used in the flu vaccine?

Adjuvants in licensed influenza vaccines: Characterisation and mechanism. Alum is the most commonly included adjuvant in influenza vaccines, but even then is only included in five vaccines. The other adjuvants used are virosomes (Inflexal V), MF59 (FluAd), AS03 (Pandemrix).

Why are adjuvants used?

An adjuvant is a substance that enhances the immune system’s response to the presence of an antigen. They are commonly used to improve the effectiveness of a vaccine. Generally, they are injected alongside an antigen to help the immune system generate antibodies that fight the antigen.

What are adjuvant medications?

Adjuvant Medications This group includes drugs such as antidepressants, anticonvulsants, corticosteroids, neuroleptics, and other drugs with narrower adjuvant functions. Adjuvant drugs can be used to enhance the effects of pain medications, treat concurrent symptoms, and provide analgesia for other types of pain.

How do vaccine adjuvants work?

Adjuvants may act by a combination of various mechanisms including formation of depot, induction of cytokines and chemokines, recruitment of immune cells, enhancement of antigen uptake and presentation, and promoting antigen transport to draining lymph nodes.