1. adjuvants, immunologic Substances that augment, stimulate, activate, potentiate, or modulate the immuneresponse at either the cellular or humoral level. The classical agents (Freund's adjuvant, BCG, Corynebacterium parvum, et al.) contain bacterial antigens. Some are endogenous (e.g., histamine, interferon, transfer factor, tuftsin, interleukin-1). Their mode of action is either non-specific, resulting in increased immuneresponsiveness to a wide variety of antigens, or antigen-specific, i.e., affecting a restricted type of immuneresponse to a narrowgroup of antigens. The therapeuticefficacy of many biological response modifiers is related to their antigen-specific immunoadjuvanticity.
Definitions of adjuvants, immunologic
