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Boosting the immune response: the use of iNKT cell ligands as vaccine adjuvants

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  • Published:
Frontiers in Biology

Abstract

Natural killer T (NKT) cells comprise a small, but important T cell subset and are thought to bridge the innate and adaptive immune responses. The discovery of NKT cells and extensive research on their activating ligands have paved the way for modulation of these potent immunoregulatory cells in order to improve the outcome of various clinical conditions. Efforts to modulate NKT cell effector functions have ranged from therapy for influenza to antitumor immunotherapy. These approaches have also led to the use of NKTcell agonists such as α-Galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) and its analogs as vaccine adjuvants, an approach that is aimed at boosting specific B and Tcell responses to a vaccine candidate by concomitant activation of NKT cells. In this review we will provide a comprehensive overview of the efforts made in using α-GalCer and its analogs as vaccine adjuvants. The diverse array of vaccination strategies used, as well as the role of NKTcell activating adjuvants will be discussed, with focus on vaccines against malaria, HIV, influenza and tumor vaccines. Collectively, these studies demonstrate the efficacy of NKT cell-specific agonists as adjuvants and suggest that these compounds warrant serious consideration during the development of vaccination strategies.

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  1. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine and the Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center, Baltimore, Maryland, 21201, USA

    Priyanka B. Subrahmanyam & Tonya J. Webb

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Subrahmanyam, P.B., Webb, T.J. Boosting the immune response: the use of iNKT cell ligands as vaccine adjuvants. Front. Biol. 7, 436–444 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11515-012-1194-2

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