Liposomes containing lipid A: an effective, safe, generic adjuvant system for synthetic vaccines

Abstract

Liposomes containing monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA) have previously exhibited considerable potency and safety in human trials with a variety of candidate vaccines, including vaccines to malaria, HIV-1 and several different types of cancer. The long history of research and development of MPLA and liposomal MPLA as vaccine adjuvants reveals that there are numerous opportunities for creation and development of generic (nonproprietary) adjuvant system formulations with these materials that are not only highly potent and safe, but also readily available as native materials or as synthetic compounds. They are easily manufactured as potentially inexpensive and easy to use adjuvant systems and might be effective even with synthetic peptides as antigens.

Keywords::

• adjuvant
• adjuvant mechanisms
• adjuvant systems
• data mining
• lipid A
• liposomes
• monophosphoryl lipid A
• patents and intellectual property
• peptide vaccines

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the US government.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported through a Cooperative Agreement contract (No. W81XWH-07-2-067) between the Henry M Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine and the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.