Aluminium-adsorbed vaccines

摘要

In 2004, I commented in The Lancet Infectious Diseases that it wastooearlyto conclude that aluminium adjuvants were safe for all to use.1 This opinion has been strengthened by recent research highlighting delayed hypersensitivity to aluminium in children who have received aluminium-adsorbed vaccines.2'3 Contact allergy to aluminium has been known for some time,4 although delayed hypersensitivity to aluminium is a recently recognised phenomenon of unknown aetiology. The observation thatthe body retains a "memory" of previous exposure to aluminium (as an adjuvant) is intriguing and may support research that reported the development of anti-aluminium monoclonal antibodies. Delayed hypersensitivity to aluminium raises a number of issues relating to the biological availability of this environmental toxin, perhaps not least of which, and pertinent to this moment in time, is the plan to improve the immunogenicityof(bird) flu vaccine by using aluminium-based adjuvants.