Adjuvant Activity of Cytokines

The activity of several potent adjuvants, including incomplete Freund’s adjuvant, CpG oligodeoxynucleotides, and alum, has been shown to be due at least in part to the induction of cytokines, including type I interferons (IFNs), IFN-γ, interleukin-2 (IL-2), and IL-12, that play key roles in the regulation of innate and adaptive immunity. The relatively short half-life of recombinant homologues of cytokines has limited their use as vaccine adjuvants. These difficulties have been overcome by encapsulation into liposomes and the use of cytokine expression vectors co-administered with DNA vaccines. Although a number of cytokines including IFN-α, IFN-γ, IL-2, IL-12, IL-15, IL-18, IL-21, GM-CSF, and Flt-3 ligand have been shown to potentiate the immune response to vaccination in various experimental models, the full potential of cytokines as vaccine adjuvants remains to be established.