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Aluminium Adjuvants in Vaccines—A Way To Modulate the Immune Response

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Immunology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 January 2025 | Viewed by 572

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Biomedical Science, Faculty of Health and Society, Malmö University, 205 06 Malmö, Sweden
Interests: aluminium adjuvants; vaccine

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Subunit vaccines, which contain antigen(s) isolated from the original pathogen or produced by recombinant DNA technology, require adjuvants to enhance the immune response. Aluminium-based adjuvants (ABAs) are the most common adjuvants in these vaccines. The antigen adsorbs onto the ABA, which facilitates the delivery of the antigen to potential antigen-presenting cells (APCs) through phagocytosis of micro-sized ABA particles.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic saw the successful introduction of mRNA-based vaccines in global vaccination programs. These vaccines, which encode specified antigen(s) of the pathogen, are also a type of subunit vaccine. Compared to other subunit vaccines, mRNA vaccines are safer to produce and administer. The success of mRNA vaccines prompts the question: will all vaccines in the future be mRNA-based?

Inflammation is the primary trigger of immune activation. How does the phagosomal pathway affect the activation of the innate immune system and the outcome of the immune response during vaccination? mRNA-based vaccines are administered as nano-sized particles, which are unlikely to be phagocytosed by cells of the innate immune system. Do micro-sized adjuvants activate the adaptive immune system as ABAs through stimulation of innate immune cells inducing inflammation? Does an mRNA-based vaccine induce a different immunological outcome compared with a traditional ABA-formulated vaccine?

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • The immune-stimulating mechanism of ABAs;
  • The resulting immunological outcome of using mRNA vaccines compared with vaccines containing ABAs;
  • ABAs and the phagosomal pathway;
  • Trained immunity induced by ABA;
  • Is the phagosome a signalling platform in the activation of the innate immune system?
  • Trained immunity and its importance in the outcome of the vaccination;
  • Epigenetic effects mediated by ABAs;
  • Cellular and humoral immune responses to ABA and mRNA vaccines.

Prof. Dr. Håkan Eriksson
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • adjuvants and vaccines
  • innate immune activation
  • trained immunity
  • inflammatory response
  • cytokine modulation
  • phagosomes and intracellular signalling
  • epigenetic modulation

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 2276 KiB  
Article
Adsorption and Desorption of Immune-Modulating Substances by Aluminium-Based Adjuvants: An Overlooked Feature of the Immune-Stimulating Mechanisms of Aluminium-Based Adjuvants
by Ravi Danielsson, Irene Mile and Håkan Eriksson
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(22), 12399; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms252212399 - 19 Nov 2024
Viewed by 283
Abstract
Vaccine antigens are partly adsorbed onto aluminium-based adjuvant particles, forming an unstable corona. At the inoculation site, the corona will be restructured, and the adsorbed antigens will be released through replacement with biomolecules from the interstitial fluid of the recipient. Aluminium-based adjuvants (ABAs) [...] Read more.
Vaccine antigens are partly adsorbed onto aluminium-based adjuvant particles, forming an unstable corona. At the inoculation site, the corona will be restructured, and the adsorbed antigens will be released through replacement with biomolecules from the interstitial fluid of the recipient. Aluminium-based adjuvants (ABAs) carrying a corona of serum proteins as a model of particles with a pre-formed antigen corona were shown to adsorb several categories of cytokines and growth factors, as assessed from a protein array covering 18 different analytes. Out of the 18 analytes, 12 were shown to be adsorbed by the aluminium-based adjuvant Alhydrogel®, which had a pre-formed protein corona. The adsorption of TNF-α, IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, and IFN-γ was studied in detail. Among the studied cytokines, IL-2, IL-4, and IFN-γ, were adsorbed by Alhydrogel®. Adsorbed IFN-γ was further studied to show that the adsorption of IFN-γ did not denature the cytokine, and the cytokine could be desorbed from adjuvant particles in a biologically active form and in relevant amounts. The adsorption of immune-stimulating molecules onto ABAs at the administration site of a vaccine is a neglected event in the mode of action of aluminium-based adjuvants. This process may modulate the immune response with a profound impact on initiating the innate immune response and consequently the adaptive immune response. Full article
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