The present disclosure relates tosynthetic alpha-galactosyl ceramide (.alpha.- GalCer)analogs, and their use as immunotherapies,adju-vants, and antiviral, antibacterial, and anticanceragents. In one aspect, a method of activating acy-tokine response in a subject includesadminister-ing an effective amount of a compound to asub-ject, wherein the subject has an adaptive immunesystem that includes a population of cells, thepopulation including at least one lymphocyte andat least one antigen-presenting cell, and whereinthe compound is represented by the structure offormula 1 :; or a pharmaceutically acceptable saltthereof; forming a complex between thecom-pound and the antigen-presenting cell, whereinthe formation of the complex results in theactiva-tion of a receptor on the lymphocyte; andactivat-ing the lymphocyte to produce the cytokinere-sponse.
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