Abstract: A pharmaceutical composition including an adjuvant effective amount of a protected inosine monophosphate (IMP) compound. The pharmaceutical composition includes the protected IMP compound alone, or in combination with vaccine agents with or without additional adjuvants. The pharmaceutical composition can be utilized as a vaccine composition or can be included with existing vaccine compositions in order to increase a specific T lymphocyte mediated immune response thereto. Various methods relating to the pharmaceutical composition and the vaccine are described herein. The vaccines can be employed to prevent or treat infections. Additionally, the pharmaceutical compositions not only increase T-cell responses, but also confer, by pretreatment, non-specific protection against a variety of pathogens. This combination of actions is appropriate for enhancing defense against bioterrorism with organisms like smallpox and anthrax.

Abstract: A method for overcoming immune suppression includes the steps of inducing production of naive T cells and restoring T cell immunity. A method of vaccine immunotherapy includes the steps of inducing production of naive T cells and exposing the naive T cells to endogenous or exogenous antigens at an appropriate site. Additionally, a method for unblocking immunization at a regional lymph node includes the steps of promoting differentiation and maturation of immature dendritic cells at a regional lymph node and allowing presentation of processed peptides by resulting mature dendritic cells, thus, for example, exposing tumor peptides to T cells to gain immunization of the T cells.