An overview of adjuvant formulations and delivery systems

Adjuvants may promote immune responses: by recruiting professional antigen‐presenting cells ( APC s) to the vaccination site, increasing the delivery of antigens to APC s, or by activating APC s to produce cytokines and by triggering T cell responses. Aluminium salts have been effective at promoting protective humoral immunity; however, they are not effective in generating cell‐mediated immunity. A number of different approaches have been developed to potentiate immune response and they have been partially successful. Research has been conducted into vaccine delivery systems ( VDS ); enhancing cross‐presentation by targeting antigens to ( APC s). Antigen discovery has increased over the past decade, and consequently, it has accelerated vaccine development demanding a new generation of VDS that combines different types of adjuvants into specific formulations with greater activity. The new approaches offer a wide spectrum of opportunities in vaccine research with direct applications in the near future.