Primeless B Cell Boosting

A pair of papers published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences presents two ways to jump-start antibody production using lipid vaccine adjuvants that stimulate invariant natural killer T cells.^1,2 The result is rapid and efficient antibody production without having to first prime the B cells with helper T cells.

The new techniques allow for enhanced antibody production against poorly immunogenic peptides, bacterial lipids and glycoproteins. In addition, the approaches may provide new tools for vaccine development in areas such as bacterial infection...