Cytokines As Vaccine Adjuvants: The Use of Interleukin-2

Live attenuated virus and bacterial vaccines are generally more potent than subunit or nucleic acid vaccines because of the host’s vigorous inflammatory response to them. The challenge to building effective subunit or nucleic acid vaccines is incorporating those factors in the regimen that mimic an infection, resulting in a robust and protective immune response. Numerous cytokines have been shown to significantly modulate the inflammatory process, including interleukin-12 (IL-12), granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and interleukin-2 (IL-2), (reviewed in 1 and 2 ). The addition of recombinant or nucleic acid-derived cytokine(s) to a vaccine regimen can therefore enhance the endogenous immune response to the vaccine antigen.