TLR agonists as adjuvants for viral vaccines: mechanisms, applications, and future directions

TL;DR

This paper reviews how TLR agonists can boost viral vaccines by enhancing immune responses and outlines future directions for their use.

Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive review of TLR agonists' mechanisms and applications in viral vaccines, emphasizing future integration with novel platforms.

Findings

TLR agonists improve antigen presentation and stimulate both humoral and cellular immunity.

Preclinical and clinical studies show TLR agonists can overcome immune tolerance and enhance vaccine immunogenicity.

Future directions suggest integrating precision adjuvants with novel vaccine platforms for broad-spectrum protection.

Abstract

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play a pivotal role in the innate immune system by recognizing pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), thereby initiating immune responses against viral infections. TLR agonists have emerged as promising adjuvants to enhance the efficacy of viral vaccines by modulating immune responses, improving antigen presentation, and promoting both humoral and cellular immunity. This review comprehensively summarizes the classification, signaling mechanisms, and immunomodulatory functions of cell-surface and intracellular TLRs. It further discusses the application of TLR agonists as adjuvants in vaccines against major viruses, including HBV, HCV, HIV, SARS-CoV-2, influenza, and flaviviruses. Key findings from preclinical and clinical studies highlight the potential of TLR agonists to overcome immune tolerance, enhance vaccine immunogenicity, and provide broad-spectrum protection. Finally, it points toward the “integration of precision adjuvants with novel vaccine platforms” as a core future direction, laying a theoretical and applied foundation for TLR agonists to become the next generation of viral vaccine adjuvants.

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