Vaccines have been used for years to help the immune system fight off infectious organisms. Ones containing life organisms work efficiently alone however vaccines containing dead organisms or inactivated vaccines usually need substances know as adjuvants to facilitate the immune response. Aluminum slats or alum are the only adjuvants approved for use in the United States and are regularly used in vaccines today. Alum works by making T cells take a longer look at the antigen producing a more intense immune response however noone fully understands why this happens.
Recently researchers have discovered that DNA plays a vital roll in the adjuvant effect. This was proven by injecting vaccine with DNase(a DNA digesting enzyme) the vaccine was less effect. This is what the Nation Jewish Health team
used to observe the impact of DNA. Initially they had found that the process starts much like the initiation responses in bacterial infections. Immune system responders like Neutrophils move to the site of the infections, attack the infection (or in our case the alum vaccine) then die. When they die they release DNA and that DNA unravels. This is used to catch the foreign agent. Other cells then engulf the DNA-alum-vaccine complex. After these antigen-presenting cells use a little of the vaccine on the surface for T-cells to recognize; T-cells are the main players in adaptive immune response. Given these findings they next showed that adjuvants with a DNA coating engage the T-cell much longer then ones that DNase were added. The DNA makes the antigen-presenting cell more attractive. This extended engagement allows for a more intense immune response.
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