Chemicals & raw materials
Double agents
Looking at a vial of liquid or a solid pill, it’s easy to see pharmaceuticals as simple objects rather than a complex array of chemicals and raw materials, delicately balanced to achieve a desired effect. The current coronavirus vaccines are a good example of such a balance, with the list of ingredients including water, sugar and salt, all of which play a different role in the effective deployment of the messenger RNA (mRNA) that stimulates the immune response. But one category of components has held the spotlight recently for its ability to improve the protection offered by vaccines. Monica Karpinski looks at the role adjuvants play in making vaccines effective, as well as the research that suggests they could hold even greater unrealised potential.
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uring the height of the coronavirus pandemic, elderly members of a synagogue in Cambridge, Massachusetts, decided to visit the Division of Infectious Diseases at Boston Children’s Hospital to donate their blood to science. As part of the Precision Vaccines Programme, a research project that develops vaccines for vulnerable populations, their blood would be used to test the efficacy of vaccine adjuvants – substances that are added into vaccines alongside the active ingredient to enhance its effects on the body. Adjuvants have been around since the 1920s, but most notable advances in the field have happened in recent decades. Now, as labs across the world
work to develop better Covid-19 vaccines, adjuvants are in the spotlight once more. It’s easy to see why: they can make the effects of a vaccine last longer and provide a greater degree of immunity. In other words, with the right adjuvant, we could have a Covid vaccine that lasts years, rather than months, all while protecting us against multiple variants. But while we have some understanding of how adjuvants work, we still don’t know exactly how we can use them to make vaccines more effective, says head of VFI-Oxford Adjuvant Programme at the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, Dr Anita Milicic. “It’s the million dollar question... [we need] increases in knowledge along the whole path of the
World Pharmaceutical Frontiers /
www.worldpharmaceuticals.net
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