ISCOMATRIX adjuvant for antigen delivery.

The immunostimulating complex, referred to as 'iscom', was first described by Morein et al. in 1984 as a novel structure for antigenic presentation of membrane proteins from enveloped viruses with potent immunomodulatory capability . Since this discovery, many vaccines have been tested in animal models showing the induction of both humoral and cellular immune responses . The ISCOMATRIX adjuvant is essentially the same structure as the iscom but without the incorporated antigen . Antigens can be formulated with the ISCOMATRIX adjuvant to produce ISCOMATRIX vaccines that can provide the same antigen presentation and immunomodulatory properties as the iscom but with much broader application as they are not limited to hydrophobic membrane proteins. Various ISCOMATRIX vaccines have been tested in animal models and more recently in human clinical trials . These studies have shown that the ISCOMATRIX adjuvant is safe and induces both humoral and cellular immune responses. The ability of the ISCOMATRIX adjuvant to induce these broad immune responses is due to the combination of antigen presentation by both MHC class I and class II pathways, and the powerful immunomodulatory capability of the saponin. Additionally, the ISCOMATRIX adjuvant is simple to manufacture and can be combined with a wide range of antigens making it suitable for the development of novel human vaccines.