Novel ISCOMs from Quillaja brasiliensis saponins induce mucosal and systemic antibody production, T-cell responses and improved antigen uptake.

In the last decades, significant efforts have been dedicated to the search for novel vaccine adjuvants. In this regard, saponins and its formulations as "immunostimulating complexes" (ISCOMs) have shown to be capable of stimulating potent humoral and cellular immune responses, enhanced cytokine production and activation of cytotoxic T cells. The immunological activity of ISCOMs formulated with a saponin fraction extracted from Quillaja brasiliensis (QB-90 fraction) as an alternative to classical ISCOMs based on Quil A(®) (IQA) is presented here.

Micellar aggregates of saponins from Chenopodium quinoa: characterization by dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy.

Entire seeds of Chenopodium quinoa Willd are a rich protein source and are also well-known for their high saponin content. Due to their amphiphily quinoa saponins are able to form intricate micellar aggregates in aqueous media. In this paper we study the aggregates formed by self-association of these compounds from two quinoa saponin fractions (FQ70 and FQ90) as well as several distinctive nanostructures obtained after their complexation with different ratios of cholesterol (CHOL) and phosphatidylcholine (PC).