Hi there,

It is difficult to answer your question since so many adjuvants currently exist; there are numerous types of adjuvants (emulsions, TLR ligands, alum etc.). Complete and incomplete terminology is usually used for Freund's adjuvant, a water-in-oil emulsion, consisting of inactivated mycobacteria suspended in mineral oil (Complete Freunds Adjuvant; CFA). The incomplete version (IFA) lacks the mycobacteria, and only consists of water-in-oil.

To answer your second question - I don't think an adjuvant will help you to target a specific epitope such as HA or NA - this rather depends on your antigen with which you immunize your animal with. Adjuvants can skew immune response towards either cellular or humoral immune responses, but it all depends on the antigen you use.

If it also contains killed Mycobacterium tuberculosis it is known

as Complete Adjuvant. Without the bacteria it

is Incomplete Adjuvant.  Adjuvant is

designed to provide continuous release of antigens

necessary for stimulating a strong, persistent immune

response. The main disadvantage of 

Adjuvant is that it can cause granulomas, inflammation

at the inoculation site and lesions. The mycobacteria in

Complete Adjuvant attracts macrophages and other

cells to the injection site which enhances the immune

response. For this reason, the Complete 

Adjuvant is used for the initial injections. To minimize

side-effects, Incomplete Freund's Adjuvant is used for

the boosts.

So, if your antigen can weakly induce the immunological response,  I recommend using the complete adjuvant. 

Good Luck!

Freund's adjuvant is the adjuvant of immunity which is universal:

Complete: it is composed of paraffin oil and mannide monooleate to create and stabilize the emulsion. Furthermore, it is supplemented with plasma membranes of mycobacteria to ensure the stimulation of monocytes and macrophages in particular with a high production of IL2.

Incomplete: It does not contain mycobacteria to avoid the risk of reverse when antigenic stimulation.

Two points are very important:

1. The emulsion produced with the antigen (HA or NA) must be effective and stable because this emulsion recreates all the epitope of the antigenic molecule on the surface of the micelle.

2. You can use the adjuvant once, in an injection of complete adjuvant and another incomplete adjuvant injection. the repetition of one or other adjuvants would be detrimental.

be careful because this adjuvant has toxic and carcinogenic effects.

Used properly this adjuvant can present all epitopes (hidden or not) the immune system by subcutaneous or intraperitoneal injection.

All epitopes present on HA or NA may develop antibodies, but it is not possible to select a specific epitope with such an adjuvant, and probably no other adjuvant: at most it can hide an epitope, adding specific antibody epitope we want to silence.