Innate immune mechanisms and the identification of immune potentiators as vaccine adjuvants

Vaccines are considered to be one of the most significant medical interventions against infectious diseases. Despite this success, major obstacles remain in developing vaccines for pathogens against which vaccines do not exist or against emerging pathogens and improving suboptimal vaccines. Key elements needed to design effective vaccines include identification of protective antigens against which a robust and durable adaptive response must be generated, compounds that can stimulate the innate immune responses, and optimal delivery systems which carry and dispense the antigenic and immuno stimulatory cargo to the appropriate cells of the immune system. The mechanistic understanding and the tools to manipulate this system are growing and it is likely that novel immune potentiators and delivery systems can make a significant impact on vaccine development in the near future. Thus, selecting the optimal platforms for development and identifying the key cellular and molecular targets of the innate immune system can trigger the safest and most effective immune responses against diverse pathogens which should be the long-term goal.