U.O. Diagnostica Ematochimica, Dipartimento di Patologia e Medicina di Laboratorio, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Parma, Parma, Italy.
Eur J Intern Med. 2010 Apr;21(2):70-3. doi: 10.1016/j.ejim.2009.12.001. Epub 2009 Dec 29.
Squalene, a hydrocarbon obtained for commercial purposes primarily from shark liver oil and other botanic sources, is increasingly used as an immunologic adjuvant in several vaccines, including seasonal and the novel influenza A (H1N1) 2009 pandemic flu vaccines. Nearly a decade ago, squalene was supposed to be the experimental anthrax vaccine ingredient that caused the onset of Persian Gulf War syndrome in many veterans, since antibodies to squalene were detected in the blood of most patients affected by this syndrome. This evidence has raised a widespread concern about the safety of squalene containing adjuvants (especially MF59) of influenza vaccines. Nevertheless, further clinical evidence clearly suggested that squalene is poorly immunogenic, that low titres of antibodies to squalene can be also detected in sera from healthy individuals, and that neither the presence of anti-squalene antibodies nor their titre is significantly increased by immunization with vaccines containing squalene (or MF59) as an adjuvant. This review summarizes the current scientific evidence about the relationship between squalene, anti-squalene antibodies and vaccination.
角鲨烯是一种从鲨鱼肝油和其他植物源中提取的烃类化合物，主要用于商业目的。它越来越多地被用作几种疫苗的免疫佐剂，包括季节性流感和新型甲型 H1N1 流感疫苗。近十年前，角鲨烯曾被认为是导致许多退伍军人出现海湾战争综合征的实验性炭疽疫苗成分，因为大多数受这种综合征影响的患者的血液中都检测到了角鲨烯抗体。这一证据引起了人们对含有角鲨烯佐剂（特别是 MF59）的流感疫苗的安全性的广泛关注。然而，进一步的临床证据清楚地表明，角鲨烯的免疫原性很差，在健康个体的血清中也可以检测到低滴度的角鲨烯抗体，而且无论是否存在抗角鲨烯抗体，其滴度都不会因含有角鲨烯（或 MF59）作为佐剂的疫苗接种而显著增加。这篇综述总结了目前关于角鲨烯、抗角鲨烯抗体和疫苗接种之间关系的科学证据。
