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Growing evidence highlights adjuvants’ molecular actions via epigenetic pathways that alter gene expression without changing DNA sequence, including DNA methylation, histone modifications, and non-coding RNA regulation. This review discusses how adjuvants interact with epigenetic regulators and how epigenetic inhibitors may be used to boost adjuvant performance.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/","Healthcare",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/harnessing-adjuvant-induced-epigenetic-modulation-for-enhanced-immunity-in-vaccines-and-cancer-therapy/370320/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/harnessing-adjuvant-induced-epigenetic-modulation-for-enhanced-immunity-in-vaccines-and-cancer-therapy/370320.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Theodore","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-04","2026-09-23",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",7,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"How do vaccine adjuvants traditionally enhance immune responses?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"They amplify immune responses and support long-lasting protection. Aluminum salts form depots at the injection site, prolonging antigen exposure, and activate innate immunity through the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway to induce pro-inflammatory cytokines.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"What epigenetic mechanisms are relevant to how adjuvants affect immunity?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Epigenetics involves heritable changes in gene expression without altering DNA sequence. Key mechanisms include DNA methylation, histone modifications, and non-coding RNA expression, which regulate immune pathways and shape response strength and duration.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"Why are adjuvants important in cancer immunotherapies compared with traditional vaccines?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Cancer vaccines and immunotherapies must overcome immune tolerance to self-antigens and suppression by the tumor microenvironment. Adjuvants help the immune system recognize and attack tumor cells, including by activating pathways such as STING to promote tumor-specific immune activation.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},370320,1791322120,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,109,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},40,"healthcare",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":55,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":55,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},7971461740886,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_3d24733baf745e90a7e4bdd5f77d97b2","TYPE Mini Review  \nPUBLISHED 18 February 2025 DOI 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1547213  \nOPEN ACCESS  \nEDITED BY  \nAbel A. Ramos Vega,  \nNational Polytechnic Institute (IPN), Mexico  \nREVIEWED BY  \nChaitenya Verma,  \nSharda University, India  \n*CORRESPONDENCE  \nRosˆangela Salerno-Gonalves  \n [rmezghan@som.umaryland.edu](rmezghan@som.umaryland.edu)  \nRECEIVED 17 December 2024  \nACCEPTED 05 February 2025  \nPUBLISHED 18 February 2025  \nCITATION  \nMegdiche Y and Salerno-Gonalves R (2025) Harnessing adjuvant-induced epigenetic modulation for enhanced immunity in vaccines and cancer therapy.  \nFront. Immunol. 16:1547213 .  \ndoi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1547213  \nCOPYRIGHT  \n© 2025 Megdiche and Salerno-Gonalves. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.  \nHarnessing adjuvant-induced epigenetic modulation for enhanced immunity in vaccines and cancer therapy  \nYasmine Megdiche and Rosˆangela Salerno-Gonc¸ alves*  \nCenter for Vaccine Development and Global Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States  \nAdjuvants are crucial in vaccines and cancer therapies, enhancing therapeutic efficacy through diverse mechanisms. In vaccines, adjuvants are traditionally valued for amplifying immune responses, ensuring robust and long-lasting protection against pathogens. In cancer treatments, adjuvants can boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy or immunotherapy by targeting tumor antigens, rendering cancer cells more vulnerable to treatment. Recent research has uncovered new molecular-level effects of the adjuvants, mainly through epigenetic mechanisms. Epigenetics encompasses heritable modifications in gene expression that do not alter the DNA sequence, impacting processes such as DNA methylation, histone modification, and non-coding RNA expression. These epigenetic changes play a pivotal role in regulating gene activity, influencing immune pathways, and modulating the strength and duration of immune responses. Whether in vaccines or cancer treatments, understanding how adjuvants interact with epigenetic regulators offers significant potential for developing more precise, cell-targeted therapies across various medical fields. This review delves into the evolving role of adjuvants and their interactions with epigenetic mechanisms. It also examines the potential of harnessing epigenetic changes to enhance adjuvant efficacy and explores the novel use of epigenetic inhibitors as adjuvants in therapeutic settings.  \nKEYWORDS  \nadjuvant, epigenetic, vaccine, cancer therapy, immunity, human  \n1 Adjuvants in vaccines  \nSeveral types of adjuvants are currently employed to enhance vaccine efficacy through diverse mechanisms and approaches. Historically, aluminum salts, such as aluminum hydroxide and aluminum phosphate, were the most widely used adjuvants. These adjuvants boost the immune response by forming depots at the injection site (i.e., depot effect), thereby prolonging antigen exposure. Additionally, they activate the innate immune system by triggering the NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome pathway, resulting in the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (1) . Though, recent research has  \nFrontiers in Immunology 01 [frontiersin.org](frontiersin.org)  \nshifted toward new compounds with adjuvant properties, including nano-and micro-particles (e.g., polymers like poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) or liposomes), emulsions (e.g., MF59 or AS03), immune potentiators (e.g., cytokines, Toll-like receptors (TLR) agonists), combination adjuvants (e.g., alum with immune potentiators), and mucosal adjuvants to target nasal or oral rout","cbCaiqQ6MzeXaAj2","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiqQ6MzeXaAj2","pdf",1116630,"English","# 1 Adjuvants in vaccines\n## Historical aluminum-salt adjuvants and their mechanisms\n## Newer adjuvant classes: nanoparticles, emulsions, immune potentiators, combinations, mucosal adjuvants\n# 2 Adjuvants in cancer immunotherapies","[{\"question\":\"How do vaccine adjuvants traditionally enhance immune responses?\",\"answer\":\"They amplify immune responses and support long-lasting protection. Aluminum salts form depots at the injection site, prolonging antigen exposure, and activate innate immunity through the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway to induce pro-inflammatory cytokines.\"},{\"question\":\"What epigenetic mechanisms are relevant to how adjuvants affect immunity?\",\"answer\":\"Epigenetics involves heritable changes in gene expression without altering DNA sequence. Key mechanisms include DNA methylation, histone modifications, and non-coding RNA expression, which regulate immune pathways and shape response strength and duration.\"},{\"question\":\"Why are adjuvants important in cancer immunotherapies compared with traditional vaccines?\",\"answer\":\"Cancer vaccines and immunotherapies must overcome immune tolerance to self-antigens and suppression by the tumor microenvironment. Adjuvants help the immune system recognize and attack tumor cells, including by activating pathways such as STING to promote tumor-specific immune activation.\"}]","Harnessing adjuvant-induced epigenetic modulation for enhanced immunity in vaccines and cancer therapy | PDF",1790187971,18]