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Abstract
Human influenza subunit vaccines are not fully protective in either the very young
or elderly populations where risk is greatest. The use of an adjuvant to enhance antibody
titer is an attractive option to increase vaccine efficacy. A series of squalene/H2O
emulsions stabilized either by the amphipathic muramyl peptide MTP-PE (sodium N-acetyl-muramyl-L-alanyl-D-isoglutaminyl-L-alanyl-2-(1',2'-dipalmitoyl-
sn- glycero-3'phospho) ethylamide) or by mixtures of the sorbitan oleate surfactants
Tween 80 and Span 85 have been tested as adjuvants with influenza vaccine. Combination
of influenza vaccine with the Tween/Span stabilized emulsions has resulted in significantly
higher antibody titers to vaccine in an extensive series of naive animal models. The
use of submicron emulsion droplets is significant in determination of adjuvant activity
while the presence of the muramyl peptide is not required for adjuvant activity. The
200-300 nm diameter emulsion formulation MF59 containing only the low toxicity components
squalene, Tween 80 and Span 85 has been shown to enhance titers from 5 to 250 times
that achievable with vaccine alone.