A vaccine ingredient that helps evoke a stronger immune response, "Adjuvants" may constitute an indispensable element of modern vaccines by enhancing the ability of a vaccine to (1) elicit strong and durable immune responses -- including in immunologically compromised individuals -- r(2) reduce the antigen dose and the number of immunizations, and (3) modulate the nature of immune response to specific pathogens. Despite the increasingly important role of adjuvants in modern vaccination, only a few adjuvants have so farbeen FDA approved for human use. Among them, QS-21, a natural product isolated from the tree bark of Quillaja Saponaria Molina, an evergreen tree native to temperate central Chile, is deemed a gold standard of immunostimulants, owing to its excellence in potentiating a balanced Th1/Th2 immune response with antigen-specific CTL production, which makes it an ideal choice for vaccines against intracellular pathogens as well as for therapeutic cancer vaccines. Adjuvax LLC focuses on developing novel saponin-based vaccine adjuvants from natural resources other than Quillaja saponaria Molina, to circumvent ecological damage and supply shortage due to its overexploitation. Adjuvax LLCÂ’s solution is a pair of VSA saponin adjuvants prepared in one step from Momordica saponins isolated from widely available seeds of Momordica cochinchinensis SPRENG (MC), a perennial vine. Immunological evaluations have demonstrated that just like QS-21, VSA adjuvants induce a strong antigen-specific, mixed Th1/Th2 immune response. Moreover, the VSA adjuvants are much less toxic than QS-21 and compatible with different adjuvant combination and formulation techniques
