A Perspective on the Roles of Adjuvants in Developing Highly Potent COVID-19 Vaccines
Naru Zhang, Kangchen Li, Zezhong Liu, Kutty Selva Nandakumar, Shibo Jiang
Abstract
Several countries have made unremitting efforts to develop an optimal vaccine in the fight against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). With the increasing occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 variants, current vaccines show decreased neutralizing activities, especially towards the Omicron variant. In this context, adding appropriate adjuvants to COVID-19 vaccines can substantially reduce the number of required doses and improve efficacy or cross-neutralizing protection. We mainly focus on research progress and achievements associated with adjuvanted COVID-19 subunit and inactivated vaccines. We further compare the advantages and disadvantages of different adjuvant formulations in order to provide a scientific reference for designing an effective strategy for future vaccine development.