What is an adjuvant?
An adjuvant is a substance intended to improve the efficiency of the immune response of the vaccine. If we put a little more, we can reduce the dose of virus in the vaccine, which is a benefit for the vaccinee. The difficulty for laboratories is to find the best adjuvant-vaccine combination. If there is little adjuvant, there will be less immune stimulation, and if more is used, there will be more immune stimulation but also more unwanted side effects in some people.
Adjuvant and Guillain-Barré syndrome
In particular, adjuvants are criticized for developing diseases such as Guillain-Barré syndrome, a paralyzing disease that returns to normal after a few days in most cases, but can also, in rarer cases, lead to a more severe form. serious. In 1976, a vast vaccination campaign in the United States affected 45 million people. She was quickly arrested following more than 5,000 cases of patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome. The vaccine has been accused of being responsible for it.
However, he did not have any adjuvants. Finally, according to a posteriori analysis, there were almost the same number of sick among the unvaccinated. In the vaccine against influenza A in France, the adjuvants used are not unknown. The first adjuvant, MF59, has been used in seasonal influenza vaccines and given to 40 million people without notorious serious side effects and without Guillain-Barré syndrome. The second adjuvant has been used in the treatment of cervical cancer.
Finally, two types of vaccines will be used, with or without adjuvant. In the absence of further studies in this area, vaccines without adjuvants may be preferred for pregnant women, the immunocompromised or children from 9 to 23 months.
To read: “The truth about influenza A” by Prof. Bruno Lina, and Dr. Jérôme Salomon, Delville Frison-Roche editions
