Search for New Adjuvants Bears Fruit

The lack of suitable adjuvants has slowed the development of therapeutic vaccines to prevent or treat cancer and autoimmune diseases. Some drugs for these diseases are monoclonal antibodies, produced in cell cultures. These substances are much more expensive to produce than vaccines based on an epitope of the target cell.

The adjuvant problem has been addressed in a paper published in the December 15, 2009, online edition of the journal Vaccine. Investigators at Uppsala University (Sweden) conducted a broad search for adjuvants that could enhance the efficacy of therapeutic vaccines, while at the same time being non-toxic and biodegradable. They reported that they had identified an adjuvant with these desired characteristics. A combination of Montanide ISA720 and phosphorothioate stabilized CpG stimulatory DNA, induced similar or even higher anti-self-antibody titers compared to Freund's adjuvant, currently the most potent, but also toxic, adjuvant available.

"We have made a very important breakthrough by managing to identify a substance that is biologically degradable and that exhibits considerably higher activity than the adjuvants that have been used in the past," said senior author Dr. Lars Hellman, professor of molecular and comparative immunology at Uppsala University. "These new and highly promising findings are an important step toward developing more cost-effective drugs for some of our major public health diseases."

"Therapeutic vaccines that target the same molecules in the body as the various monoclonal antibodies would enable us to reduce the cost of treatment significantly, and also decrease the number of visits patients need to make to the clinic," said Dr. Hellman."

Related Links:
Uppsala University