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Alum's adjuvant action: grease is the word

Nature Medicine volume 17, pages 415–416 (2011)Cite this article

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Alum is the most widely used vaccine adjuvant, but its mechanism of action remains largely unknown. A recent study shows that alum interacts directly with membrane lipids on the surface of dendritic cells, triggering signaling cascades that promote CD4+ T cell activation and humoral immune responses (pages 479–487).

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Figure 1: Flach et al.8 propose a new mechanism by which alum acts as an adjuvant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. M. Lamine Mbow and Jeffrey B. Ulmer are at Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA,

    M Lamine Mbow & Jeffrey B Ulmer

  2. Ennio De Gregorio is at Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics, Siena, Italy.,

    Ennio De Gregorio

Authors
  1. M Lamine Mbow
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  2. Ennio De Gregorio
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  3. Jeffrey B Ulmer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeffrey B Ulmer.

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Competing interests

M.L.M., E.d.G. and J.B.U. are employees of Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics.

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Mbow, M., De Gregorio, E. & Ulmer, J. Alum's adjuvant action: grease is the word. Nat Med 17, 415–416 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0411-415

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