Adjuvants have been extensively and essentially formulated in subunits and certain inactivated vaccines for enhancing and prolonging protective immunity against infections and diseases. According to the types of infectious diseases and the required immunity, adjuvants with various acting mechanisms have been designed and applied in human vaccines. In this chapter, we introduce the advances in vaccine adjuvants based on nanomaterials and small molecules. By reviewing the immune mechanisms induced by adjuvants with different characteristics, we aim to establish structure-activity relationships between the physicochemical properties of adjuvants and their immunostimulating capability for the development of adjuvants for more effective preventative and therapeutic vaccines.
Keywords: Adjuvant; Aluminum; Physicochemical property; STING agonist; Structure–activity relationship; Toll-like receptor agonist.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.