SYNOPSIS
Aluminum adjuvants in vaccines produce toxic effects ranging from benign to fatal, depending on the physicochemical properties of the adjuvant and the physiological response of the vaccine recipient.
TITLE
Unraveling the enigma: elucidating the relationship between the physicochemical properties of aluminium-based adjuvants and their immunological mechanisms of action
CITATION
Shardlow E, Mold M, Exley C. Unraveling the enigma: elucidating the relationship between the physicochemical properties of aluminium-based adjuvants and their immunological mechanisms of action. Allergy Asthma & Clinical Immunology 2018;14:80.
SUMMARY
The two types of aluminum salts commonly used as adjuvants in vaccines are chemically and biologically dissimilar and may play distinct roles in vaccine-related adverse events. Understanding their physicochemical properties—within the physiological environment of the injection site—can help explain their role in adverse events. The authors suggest that “some degree of toxicity and cell death is probably inevitable” following injection of aluminum salts, but they note that the type of iatrogenic effect observed may “range from benign to fatal” depending on the properties of the specific adjuvant “and, critically, the physiological response of the recipient.” Pointing out that aluminum-based adjuvants have never received approval for intramuscular or subcutaneous injection into humans, the researchers call for evaluation of their safety “independently of their presence in vaccine formulations.”