Adjuvants for varicella and herpes zoster vaccines

The development of an adjuvant system for the composition of a preventive vaccine against varicella zoster virus (VZV) and herpes zoster (HZ) remains an urgent task, since to date only one recombinant vaccine with an adjuvant has been registered, the composition of which limits its use. An adjuvant for the VZV vaccine must meet a number of criteria: it must stimulate not only an adaptive immune response, but also a cellular and innate one, since the virus remains latent in the cell throughout human life, it must be safe and non-reactogenic. Therefore, at the development stage, along with studying the stimulation of T-cell immunity, the research protocol should include tests aimed at studying gene expression and activating the synthesis of markers of the innate immune response: pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-12, IL-18, TNF, IFN-α, etc. It is proposed to improve and expand the research standards for antiviral vaccines by including, in addition to evaluating the antibody response, the definition of cellular and innate parameters. In the FSBSI «I.I. Mechnikov Vaccine and Serum Research Institute» is working on the creation of a recombinant vaccine against HZ, an important stage in the development of which is to test the expression of innate immunity genes in response to the introduction of TLR9 agonist adjuvant.