Playing Hardball in Government and Politics

Adjuvants are compounds incorporated into vaccines to enhance immunogenicity and the development of these molecules has become an expanding field of research in the last decades. Adding an adjuvant to a vaccine antigen leads to several advantages, including dose sparing and the induction of a more rapid, broader and strong immune response. Several of these molecules have been approved, including aluminium salts, oil-in-water emulsions (MF59, AS03 and AF03), virosomes and AS04. Adjuvants have recently been implicated in the new syndrome named “ASIA-Autoimmune/inflammatory Syndrome Induced by Adjuvants”, which describes an umbrella of clinical conditions including post-vaccination adverse reactions. Recent studies implicate a web of mechanisms in the development of vaccine adjuvant-induced autoimmune diseases, in particular, in those associated with aluminium-based compounds. Fewer and unsystematised data are instead available about other adjuvants, despite recent evidence indicating that vaccines with different adjuvants may also cause specific autoimmune adverse reactions possible towards different pathogenic mechanisms. This topic is of importance as the specific mechanism of action of each single adjuvant may have different effects on the course of different diseases. Herein, we review the current evidence about the mechanism of action of currently employed adjuvants and discuss the mechanisms by which such components may trigger autoimmunity.

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